Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 0.6% – Should You Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded up 0.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $83.54 and last traded at $83.46. 2,132,071 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 8,556,563 shares. The stock had previously closed at $82.97.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 price target (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $103.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. DSG Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,984,000. Objective Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 244.0% in the fourth quarter. Objective Capital Management LLC now owns 3,516 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,494 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 535.7% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 520,832 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,568,000 after buying an additional 438,899 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 346.5% during the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,538 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after buying an additional 7,402 shares during the period. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 415.3% during the fourth quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 11,775 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after buying an additional 9,490 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.