Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 3.1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) rose 3.1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $142.27 and last traded at $141.79. Approximately 6,770,418 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average daily volume of 8,419,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.49.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 price objective (up previously from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.1%

The company has a market capitalization of $178.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $131.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $136.28.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.43, for a total value of $3,339,180.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 522,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,091,832. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $27,553,548. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 141.3% in the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.