Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $127.29, but opened at $139.84. Arista Networks shares last traded at $141.4450, with a volume of 6,772,682 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 target price (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Seventeen research 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Up 8.6%

The company has a market capitalization of $174.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $128.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $133.43.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. The trade was a 70.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total value of $1,070,320.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,379,321.36. This trade represents a 31.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 160,464 shares of company stock worth $20,494,988 over the last ninety days. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bare Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 233 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.