Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 3.9% – Should You Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was down 3.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $123.34 and last traded at $124.9150. Approximately 7,405,477 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 6% from the average daily volume of 7,888,978 shares. The stock had previously closed at $129.93.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ANET. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, 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 research report on Thursday, September 25th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.9%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $132.52. The stock has a market cap of $157.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.50, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 value of $3,202,160.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 532,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,570,384. This represents a 4.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $28,488,988 over the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 321.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $251,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,098 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $163,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 4,508 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.