Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.8% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price dropped 1.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $135.37 and last traded at $136.9730. Approximately 5,251,586 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 8,956,058 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.54.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.42. The stock has a market cap of $172.49 billion, a PE ratio of 49.63, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.43, for a total value of $3,339,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 522,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,091,832. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total value of $1,123,440.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. This trade represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 160,464 shares of company stock valued at $20,351,388 in the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Van Diest Capital LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $483,000. Evansbrook LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $879,000. Rare Wolf Capital LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $314,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 34.7% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 566,039 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $74,168,000 after buying an additional 145,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plotkin Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Plotkin Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,983 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.