Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 3.6% – What’s Next?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) rose 3.6% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $138.21 and last traded at $135.9820. Approximately 6,398,586 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 8,140,924 shares. The stock had previously closed at $131.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ANET. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.1%

The stock has a market cap of $169.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.15.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total transaction of $1,123,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 199,632 shares of company stock worth $26,936,324 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% during the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

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.