Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Reaches New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $191.99 and last traded at $188.9850, with a volume of 1318280 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $184.89.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ANET. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings lowered Arista Networks from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, July 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $189.74.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.2%

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $168.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.69. The company has a market capitalization of $240.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.51, for a total value of $4,433,260.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 462,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,843,824. This trade represents a 5.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 234,578 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.18, for a total transaction of $43,908,310.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,134,207 shares in the company, valued at $961,020,866.26. This trade represents a 4.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,300,316 shares of company stock worth $382,160,575. 2.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Intrua Financial LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.7% during the first quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 2,307 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $283,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 37.2% in the first quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 247 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 4.1% in the first quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 1,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,133,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 870 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.