Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Upgraded to “Buy” at Jefferies Financial Group

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $320.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $240.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 16.62% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on ANET. Barclays upped their target price on Arista Networks from $272.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Melius Research raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Melius raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.53.

Arista Networks Stock Up 4.8 %

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $274.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $85.79 billion, a PE ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $279.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $249.25. Arista Networks has a 12-month low of $131.68 and a 12-month high of $307.74.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.00, for a total transaction of $6,666,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,665,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $504,585,900. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.00, for a total transaction of $6,666,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,665,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $504,585,900. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $922,301.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 335,974 shares of company stock worth $96,252,685 over the last three months. 18.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 41.2% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 90,691 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,681,000 after acquiring an additional 26,472 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 25.6% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 41,569 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,646,000 after purchasing an additional 8,478 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at $208,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Arista Networks by 0.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 158,390 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,133,000 after buying an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,642 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,981,000 after acquiring an additional 3,005 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.