Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 2.9% – Time to Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares rose 2.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $403.70 and last traded at $403.55. Approximately 434,553 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 2,240,465 shares. The stock had previously closed at $392.31.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ANET. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $320.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $349.00 to $432.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $220.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $385.00 to $460.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $369.50.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $126.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $362.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $329.52.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.50% and a net margin of 39.01%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 628 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.50, for a total transaction of $220,114.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Arista Networks news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 628 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.50, for a total transaction of $220,114.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.69, for a total value of $7,893,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,280,374.36. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 58,197 shares of company stock worth $21,326,894. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ANET. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter worth $881,848,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $521,767,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 97.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,794,586 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $628,966,000 after purchasing an additional 884,703 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4,160.9% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 515,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $180,743,000 after purchasing an additional 503,597 shares during the period. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $102,480,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.