Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 0.2%

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) dropped 0.2% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $289.39 and last traded at $291.12. Approximately 466,833 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 2,504,048 shares. The stock had previously closed at $291.67.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ANET shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $313.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $293.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $279.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.25. The stock has a market cap of $92.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The firm 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 company posted $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.20 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total transaction of $388,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,575,312.37. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total value of $388,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,575,312.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $922,301.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 337,054 shares of company stock worth $96,529,086 over the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 32.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,897,906,000 after buying an additional 2,515,864 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $586,051,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,946,338,000 after buying an additional 1,596,040 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 439.3% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,259,305 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $231,624,000 after buying an additional 1,025,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 25,188.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 613,739 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,445,420,000 after purchasing an additional 611,312 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.