Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 2% – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded up 2% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $136.09 and last traded at $133.6260. 4,701,143 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 5,511,707 shares. The stock had previously closed at $131.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ANET. BNP Paribas upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 target price (up previously from $143.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.56.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $168.27 billion, a PE ratio of 50.81, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $130.00.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This trade represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total value of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 8,980 shares in the company, valued at $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 208,464 shares of company stock worth $27,418,668. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 40,404 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,134,000 after purchasing an additional 7,779 shares during the period. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 7.8% in the second quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,998,000 after buying an additional 2,815 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,167 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter worth about $247,451,000. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 99.3% during the second quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 40,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,136,000 after acquiring an additional 20,141 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.