Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 17.5% on Strong Earnings

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) were up 17.5% on Wednesday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock traded as high as $139.02 and last traded at $138.80. Approximately 12,813,825 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 21% from the average daily volume of 10,601,340 shares. The stock had previously closed at $118.12.

The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.93% and a net margin of 40.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share.

Arista Networks announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KGI Securities lowered Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price objective on Arista Networks and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $89.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $135.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.19, for a total transaction of $3,335,700.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,442,801.44. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 880,180 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.79, for a total value of $109,837,662.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,944,405 shares in the company, valued at $741,802,299.95. This trade represents a 12.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,443,742 shares of company stock worth $395,523,885 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $933,626,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.8% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,248,169,000 after buying an additional 8,671,235 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 354.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,942,816 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,098,979,000 after buying an additional 7,753,991 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 278.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,641,326 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $955,126,000 after buying an additional 6,357,753 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $103.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $95.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $174.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.56, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.37.

About Arista Networks

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.