Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $118.00 to $73.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the technology company's stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "sell" rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $108.00 to $76.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $108.50.

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Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $72.50. 11,224,936 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,205,073. The company's fifty day moving average is $88.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.12. Arista Networks has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The stock has a market cap of $91.43 billion, a PE ratio of 32.66, a price-to-earnings-growth 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total transaction of $620,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 139,784 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,249.20. This represents a 5.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 411,031 shares of company stock valued at $39,364,943. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 304.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its position in 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $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 and hedge funds.

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.