Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price dropped 1.7% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $132.31 and last traded at $133.0170. Approximately 5,924,056 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 28% from the average daily volume of 8,240,908 shares. The stock had previously closed at $135.35.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $188.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.7%

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $134.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.34. The company has a market cap of $167.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.46.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.Arista Networks’s revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.35, for a total value of $3,701,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 512,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,940,140. This trade represents a 4.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total value of $54,041.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,220,283.74. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 196,237 shares of company stock worth $25,865,760 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in Arista Networks by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,133,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $827,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crown Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,175 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $463,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.