Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Reaches New 12-Month High Following Analyst Upgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $120.00 to $135.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $120.28 and last traded at $119.88, with a volume of 1369065 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $118.13.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on ANET. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $105.25 price objective (up from $86.25) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $105.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total value of $9,477,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,537,266.72. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 2,496 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.83, for a total transaction of $241,693.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 345,316 shares of company stock worth $37,761,976 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Arista Networks by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 596,220 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $208,962,000 after acquiring an additional 32,480 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at $612,000. Waterloo Capital L.P. purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter worth $217,000. Sienna Gestion purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at about $6,186,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 8.8% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,650 shares of the technology company's stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $107.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

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.