Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Reaches New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $118.00 to $73.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as low as $59.43 and last traded at $68.12, with a volume of 19997854 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $64.37.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on ANET. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total transaction of $896,160.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 155,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. This represents a 4.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 411,031 shares of company stock valued at $39,364,943 over the last quarter. 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 business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average is $90.32 and its 200-day moving average is $100.45. The company has a market capitalization of $93.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.22, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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.