Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 3.1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) rose 3.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $142.27 and last traded at $141.79. Approximately 6,770,418 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 20% from the average daily volume of 8,419,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.49.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 price objective (up previously from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $178.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $131.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.43, for a total transaction of $3,339,180.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 522,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,091,832. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $27,553,548 over the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. IPG Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 66.0% during the fourth quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC now owns 20,840 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,731,000 after acquiring an additional 8,286 shares during the period. Unified Investment Management lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Unified Investment Management now owns 6,283 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $823,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 1,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $213,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its position in Arista Networks by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 1,962 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 328 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

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.