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

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price fell 3.6% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $129.19 and last traded at $130.9250. 7,726,423 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 8,091,220 shares. The stock had previously closed at $135.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ANET. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $188.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $154.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $135.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $137.14.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.67, for a total transaction of $1,029,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $229,547.28. This represents a 81.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 199,632 shares of company stock worth $26,936,324. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Bare Financial Services Inc boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by 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.