Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 3.3% After Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares dropped 3.3% on Friday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $132.15 and last traded at $132.7170. Approximately 8,290,755 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 7% from the average daily volume of 8,937,319 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.23.

Specifically, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total transaction of $3,701,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 512,400 shares in the company, valued at $72,940,140. This trade represents a 4.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.44, for a total transaction of $4,558,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,848,301.44. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 price target (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $175.44.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.3%

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $133.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 2,973 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Cambient Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $5,702,000. McLaughlin Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,157,000. Van Diest Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $483,000. Finally, Evansbrook LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $879,000. 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.