Investors Purchase High Volume of Arista Networks Call Options (NYSE:ANET)

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 16,147 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 52% compared to the average volume of 10,643 call options.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.19, for a total transaction of $132,707.28. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $915,038.10. This trade represents a 12.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 2,496 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.09, for a total value of $242,342.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 354,964 shares of company stock worth $36,974,705. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3.6% during the third quarter. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. now owns 63,244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $24,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,219 shares during the period. Deepwater Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter worth about $15,084,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 69.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 9,028 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,465,000 after buying an additional 3,711 shares during the period. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at about $2,318,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 20.1% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 13,224 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,076,000 after acquiring an additional 2,216 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET traded up $3.38 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $110.26. The stock had a trading volume of 3,435,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,806,815. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $100.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.84. Arista Networks has a 52 week low of $56.65 and a 52 week high of $112.46. The company has a market capitalization of $138.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $107.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.88.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.