Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 1.8% – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) fell 1.8% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $135.37 and last traded at $136.9730. 5,251,586 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 8,956,058 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.54.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $175.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $172.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $133.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total value of $3,694,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,598,124.16. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 8,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,052,007. The trade was a 4.49% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,464 shares of company stock worth $20,351,388. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,133,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 56.7% during the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $827,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, Crown Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.4% during the third quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,175 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $463,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.