Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $109.33.

ANET has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. BNP Paribas Exane cut Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC began coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $89.00 target price (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.23, for a total value of $2,397,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 592,400 shares in the company, valued at $54,637,052. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.43, for a total transaction of $76,663,118.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,900. This trade represents a 96.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,123,370 shares of company stock worth $113,157,408. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 9.0% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 22,959,214 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,778,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889,198 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE ANET traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $106.41. The company had a trading volume of 9,369,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,139,780. Arista Networks has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.15. The firm has a market cap of $133.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.40.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Arista Networks

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.