Brokerages Set Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Price Target at $114.00

Key Points

• Arista Networks, Inc. has been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from 19 brokerages, with an average target price of $114.00.
• Despite the positive outlook, some analysts have varied views; Morgan Stanley raised its target price to $120.00, while BNP Paribas downgraded the stock from "strong-buy" to "hold."
• The company announced a $1.50 billion stock repurchase plan, indicating management's belief that its stock is currently undervalued.

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nineteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $114.00.

Several equities research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.43, for a total transaction of $76,663,118.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 30,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,900. This represents a 96.15% 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, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total value of $7,205,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,168,748.32. This trade represents a 86.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,635,562 shares of company stock worth $291,955,743 over the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $5,984,000. Ibex Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 58,093 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,501,000 after purchasing an additional 7,329 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $629,000. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 227.7% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,814,613 shares of the technology company's stock worth $863,749,000 after buying an additional 5,429,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Motley Fool Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 357.3% during the fourth quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 65,087 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,194,000 after buying an additional 50,855 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE ANET traded up $2.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $119.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,717,568 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,526,288. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $133.57. The company's 50-day moving average is $101.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $94.81.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are 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.