Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price fell 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $130.88 and last traded at $130.97. 3,745,997 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 9,637,064 shares. The stock had previously closed at $132.44.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Melius Research upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.56.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.1%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.99. The firm has a market cap of $164.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This trade represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.12, for a total transaction of $1,256,960.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 33,784 shares in the company, valued at $5,308,142.08. This represents a 19.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 208,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,418,668 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter worth $209,000. Mirabella Financial Services LLP boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 136.8% in the 3rd 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 during the period. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Arista Networks by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 7,659 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd increased 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 buying an additional 34,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tevis Investment Management raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 10.9% during the third quarter. Tevis Investment Management now owns 4,697 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $684,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the period. 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.