Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 4.2%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price was up 4.2% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $278.35 and last traded at $272.87. Approximately 1,183,811 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 51% from the average daily volume of 2,434,232 shares. The stock had previously closed at $261.86.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Melius raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.53.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $86.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $278.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $248.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 87,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.81, for a total transaction of $24,373,012.58. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,929,639.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 87,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.81, for a total transaction of $24,373,012.58. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,929,639.61. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.96, for a total value of $125,199.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 335,974 shares of company stock valued at $96,252,685 in the last ninety days. 18.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 32.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,897,906,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,864 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $586,051,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,946,338,000 after buying an additional 1,596,040 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Arista Networks by 439.3% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,259,305 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $231,624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 25,188.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 613,739 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,445,420,000 after acquiring an additional 611,312 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently 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.