Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 2.4% Higher – What’s Next?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price was up 2.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $133.58 and last traded at $133.3150. Approximately 9,028,692 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average daily volume of 8,828,794 shares. The stock had previously closed at $130.25.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on ANET shares. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.88.

Arista Networks Stock Up 2.4%

The company’s 50-day moving average is $134.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.39. The company has a market capitalization of $167.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.30, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.44, for a total transaction of $4,558,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,848,301.44. This represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total value of $1,123,440.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 194,422 shares of company stock valued at $25,620,741 over the last 90 days. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 141.3% in the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.