Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 1.4% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) traded up 1.4% during trading on Monday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $120.00 to $135.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $120.98 and last traded at $119.78. 5,776,024 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 13% from the average session volume of 5,099,290 shares. The stock had previously closed at $118.13.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on ANET. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $105.25 price target (up from $86.25) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $105.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total value of $9,477,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 2,496 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.83, for a total value of $241,693.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 345,316 shares of company stock valued at $37,761,976. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 6.9% during the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $160,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Intellectus Partners LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 1.4% during the third quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $740,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its position in Arista Networks by 4.3% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $262,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Altman Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,250,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,907 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $107.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.90 billion, a PE ratio of 57.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.