Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 5.8% - Should You Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 5.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $73.64 and last traded at $72.67. 4,905,493 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 9,078,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $68.67.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Arista Networks from $108.00 to $76.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $118.00 to $73.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $104.29.

Arista Networks Stock Up 4.3 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $82.57 and a 200-day moving average of $98.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.25, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. Equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total value of $896,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 155,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. This represents a 4.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 410,863 shares of company stock worth $39,344,612. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $242,000. GHE LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 319.0% during the 4th quarter. GHE LLC now owns 28,368 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,136,000 after purchasing an additional 21,597 shares in the last quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 327.6% in the fourth quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC now owns 9,745 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,077,000 after buying an additional 7,466 shares during the period. Unified Investment Management acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth $630,000. Finally, Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 257.6% in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. now owns 76,950 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $8,505,000 after purchasing an additional 55,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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