Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 3.6% – Should You Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was up 3.6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $138.21 and last traded at $135.9820. Approximately 6,398,586 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 8,140,924 shares. The stock had previously closed at $131.22.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $170.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen investment 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.6%

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $135.36 and a 200-day moving average of $137.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.46.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The business’s revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at $1,665,300.56. This trade represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 199,632 shares of company stock worth $26,936,324. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in Arista Networks by 56.7% during the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.