Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.4% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were down 1.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $145.33 and last traded at $148.1070. Approximately 8,897,346 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 6% from the average daily volume of 8,387,326 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.4%

The company has a market capitalization of $186.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.76.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.43, for a total transaction of $3,339,180.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 522,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,091,832. The trade was a 4.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $27,687,068. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 141.3% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the third quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.