Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 1.8% – Should You Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price traded down 1.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $78.00 and last traded at $80.20. 3,258,963 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 8,562,647 shares. The stock had previously closed at $81.66.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 target price (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Trading Down 2.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $100.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $100.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.84.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total transaction of $892,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 163,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,263,553.84. This represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.