Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 4.4% Higher - Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 4.4% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $83.94 and last traded at $83.71. 2,421,876 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 10,831,388 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.14.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on ANET. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $108.00 price objective (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup upped their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $105.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.73.

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Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total value of $6,788,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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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