Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Rating Reiterated by Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $320.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

ANET has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $232.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Oppenheimer restated a market perform rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Arista Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the company from $240.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $292.50.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $290.93 on Wednesday. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $133.42 and a 1 year high of $307.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $279.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.25.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.20 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.00, for a total transaction of $6,666,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,665,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $504,585,900. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total value of $57,184.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares in the company, valued at $721,704.83. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.00, for a total value of $6,666,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,665,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $504,585,900. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 337,054 shares of company stock worth $96,529,086 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 20.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 304,698 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $88,356,000 after acquiring an additional 52,411 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 943,694 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $273,652,000 after purchasing an additional 148,759 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 55,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,031,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 350.8% in the first quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 41,404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,006,000 after purchasing an additional 32,219 shares during the period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 5.9% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 4,709 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,366,000 after buying an additional 264 shares in 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.