Brokerages Set Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Target Price at $164.31

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eighteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $164.3125.

A number of research firms have commented on ANET. Weiss Ratings raised Arista Networks from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, November 24th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET opened at $128.54 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $140.51 and a 200-day moving average of $125.35. The company has a market capitalization of $161.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.87, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.41. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.61, for a total transaction of $3,343,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 542,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,758,064. This represents a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $2,994,431.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at $1,235,162.35. The trade was a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 1,578,700 shares of company stock worth $231,687,618 in the last quarter. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,998,000 after acquiring an additional 2,815 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,127,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,167 shares in the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 99.3% during the second quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 40,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,136,000 after purchasing an additional 20,141 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Finally, OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 71.5% in the second quarter. OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. now owns 4,804 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $491,000 after purchasing an additional 2,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.