Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 3.1% After Insider Selling

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) fell 3.1% on Monday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $127.26 and last traded at $129.3130. 6,851,680 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 8,789,526 shares. The stock had previously closed at $133.50.

Specifically, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,574 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,665,300.56. This represents a 12.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total value of $54,041.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,220,283.74. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $175.00 target price (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.88.

Arista Networks Trading Down 3.1%

The firm has a market capitalization of $162.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $134.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.33.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bare Financial Services Inc lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 2,118.2% during 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. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted 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 valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.