Arista Networks’ (ANET) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $320.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 16.80% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $240.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $313.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $232.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.53.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE ANET opened at $273.97 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.70, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $133.42 and a 1-year high of $307.74. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $279.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $251.25.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.20 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total value of $388,155.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,575,312.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total value of $388,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,575,312.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 278 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.81, for a total value of $73,895.18. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,553 shares in the company, valued at $678,612.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 337,054 shares of company stock worth $96,529,086 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. First Command Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the third quarter worth $29,000. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 872.7% in the first quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 107 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.