Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 3.9% Higher – What’s Next?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) rose 3.9% on Monday . The company traded as high as $86.30 and last traded at $86.41. Approximately 1,635,248 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 8,545,322 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.13.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ANET. Citigroup lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group raised Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Up 4.2 %

The company has a market capitalization of $109.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50-day moving average is $102.53 and its 200-day moving average is $101.89.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total value of $6,788,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.