Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 2.6% – Time to Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price shot up 2.6% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $105.49 and last traded at $102.89. 8,330,525 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 8,166,788 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $143.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.50.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The company’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 3,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.35, for a total transaction of $330,628.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,026,252.59. This represents a 4.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,266.72. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 343,992 shares of company stock worth $37,634,420. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,313,229,000 after purchasing an additional 411,109 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 293.2% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $746,165,000 after acquiring an additional 5,034,022 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 292.8% during the 4th quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 6,053,181 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $674,627,000 after buying an additional 4,512,166 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,871,481 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,246,705,000 after acquiring an additional 236,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 307.7% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,632,730 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $512,056,000 after buying an additional 3,496,497 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.