Arista Networks’ (ANET) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $145.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

ANET has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ANET opened at $98.31 on Wednesday. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $60.08 and a 1 year high of $133.57. The company has a market cap of $123.84 billion, a PE ratio of 44.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $113.94 and its 200 day moving average is $101.57.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total value of $825,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,721,666.90. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,171.04. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 260,056 shares of company stock worth $30,225,623. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. 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.