Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $175.4118.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $177.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday.

Arista Networks Trading Up 4.7%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $141.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $178.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $164.94. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.23.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This trade represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 160,464 shares of company stock valued at $20,351,388. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 56.7% during the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Arista Networks by 141.3% in the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is 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.