Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 1.6%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $260.90 and last traded at $255.29. Approximately 832,968 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 2,445,690 shares. The stock had previously closed at $251.18.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $272.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Melius raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.59.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $83.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $279.04 and a 200-day moving average of $246.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.05, for a total value of $5,801,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $940,922.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total transaction of $57,184.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $721,704.83. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.05, for a total value of $5,801,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at $940,922.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 333,494 shares of company stock worth $95,632,321 in the last three months. 18.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ANET. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 32.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,897,906,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,864 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth $586,051,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,946,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,040 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 439.3% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,259,305 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $231,624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 25,188.0% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 613,739 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,445,420,000 after acquiring an additional 611,312 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.