Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 1.4% Higher – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was up 1.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $113.97 and last traded at $113.40. Approximately 861,429 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 2,737,767 shares. The stock had previously closed at $111.79.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays lowered their target price on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.70.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.1 %

The company has a market cap of $145.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.38, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $104.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $94.81.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.67, for a total transaction of $7,893,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,280,374.36. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 337,316 shares of company stock worth $35,286,096. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 97.2% in 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 39,841.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 875,110 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,358,850,000 after purchasing an additional 872,919 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 4,160.9% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 515,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $180,743,000 after buying an additional 503,597 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 22.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,660,695 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,021,228,000 after buying an additional 492,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,313,229,000 after buying an additional 411,109 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.