Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 5.2% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price shot up 5.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $130.69 and last traded at $129.8380. 8,618,767 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 6% from the average session volume of 8,162,072 shares. The stock had previously closed at $123.42.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the subject of several recent research reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $163.50 billion, a PE ratio of 49.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a 50 day moving average of $129.74 and a 200 day moving average of $132.31.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total value of $1,070,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,379,321.36. This represents a 31.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total value of $3,694,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,598,124.16. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $28,488,988 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 40,404 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,134,000 after acquiring an additional 7,779 shares during the period. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 7.8% during the second quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,998,000 after purchasing an additional 2,815 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,167 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $247,451,000. Finally, Three Seasons Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,483,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.