Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 1.6% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $167.90 and last traded at $166.8740. Approximately 6,068,393 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 22% from the average daily volume of 7,796,000 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Zacks Research upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $177.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $210.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.46, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $136.20 and its 200 day moving average is $136.24.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.07, for a total transaction of $213,532.65. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,497,636.88. This represents a 12.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 112,812 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.11, for a total value of $16,934,209.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,488,640.87. The trade was a 91.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 322,729 shares of company stock worth $45,399,474 over the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 184.9% in the 1st quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 245 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 27,980 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,435,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 58,202 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,146,000 after purchasing an additional 4,540 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 382.7% in the 1st quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 724 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OP Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $19,049,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.