Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 2.5% After Insider Selling

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) dropped 2.5% during mid-day trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $168.51 and last traded at $172.4970. Approximately 6,736,434 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 14% from the average daily volume of 7,795,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.91.

Specifically, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 93,861 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.57, for a total transaction of $15,822,148.77. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,273,207 shares in the company, valued at $888,904,503.99. This represents a 1.75% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 306,139 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.31, for a total transaction of $51,220,116.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,287,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $884,615,987.97. This represents a 5.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $161.00 price target on the stock. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $177.83.

Arista Networks Stock Down 2.5%

The company’s fifty day moving average is $140.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.22. The stock has a market cap of $217.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.50, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.48.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 141.3% during the third 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.