Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 1.3% – Should You Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) fell 1.3% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $132.37 and last traded at $132.4190. 3,807,161 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 9,654,623 shares. The stock had previously closed at $134.15.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ANET. Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price target (up from $143.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Melius Research upped their price target on Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $163.56.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $129.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.35, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.09, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 23.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total transaction of $3,202,160.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 532,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,570,384. The trade was a 4.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $28,598,588 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Bare Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake 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, Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.