Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Price Target Raised to $112.00 at Citigroup

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $97.00 to $112.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.45% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Erste Group Bank cut Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.14.

Arista Networks Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $97.86 on Tuesday. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $79.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.25. The stock has a market cap of $122.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 412,355 shares of company stock valued at $37,216,079 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Aprio Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,672 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $295,000 after purchasing an additional 2,004 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 373.2% in the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 85,705 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,473,000 after acquiring an additional 67,592 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 371.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,750 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 2,955 shares in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its position in Arista Networks by 262.7% during the fourth quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 2,176 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $241,000 after buying an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Finally, Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc lifted its position in Arista Networks by 305.6% during the fourth quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 4,449 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $492,000 after buying an additional 3,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

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.