Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 1.9% – Should You Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price was up 1.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $127.16 and last traded at $124.66. Approximately 5,368,286 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 45% from the average daily volume of 9,793,389 shares. The stock had previously closed at $122.36.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Melius Research raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings cut Arista Networks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $163.56.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $165.33 billion, a PE ratio of 49.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $136.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.09, for a total value of $1,024,720.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 25,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,302,672.56. This trade represents a 23.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. The trade was a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $28,598,588. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirabella Financial Services LLP lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 136.8% in the third quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 23,688 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,445,000 after buying an additional 13,683 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 7,659 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 584 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 421,851 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,468,000 after purchasing an additional 34,258 shares in the last quarter. Tevis Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Tevis Investment Management now owns 4,697 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $684,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 139.3% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 21,250 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,096,000 after purchasing an additional 12,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.