Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $191.99 and last traded at $188.9850, with a volume of 1318280 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $184.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ANET. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $187.00 price target (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research cut Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $181.00 price target (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $189.74.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $240.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.42, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $168.02 and a 200 day moving average of $150.69.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,543,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,223,652,457.36. This trade represents a 0.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 242,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.17, for a total transaction of $45,616,547.74. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,171,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $973,044,946.15. The trade was a 4.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,300,316 shares of company stock worth $382,160,575. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sankala Group LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Main Street Group LTD acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.