Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 5.5% – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were up 5.5% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $146.41 and last traded at $143.9060. Approximately 10,640,603 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 28% from the average daily volume of 8,323,340 shares. The stock had previously closed at $136.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ANET. Zacks Research downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 target price (up previously from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Trading Up 5.5%

The company has a market cap of $181.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $128.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.12.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The company’s revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal 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 Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total transaction of $1,070,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,379,321.36. This represents a 31.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. The trade was a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bare Financial Services Inc boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.