Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Price Target Raised to $150.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Key Points

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. has raised its target price for Arista Networks from $130.00 to $150.00, reflecting a potential upside of 8.12% from the current stock price.
• Arista Networks reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.73, exceeding estimates by $0.08, with revenue increasing by 30.4% year-over-year to $2.20 billion.
• The firm announced a stock buyback program authorizing up to $1.50 billion in shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $130.00 to $150.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the technology company's stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s target price would indicate a potential upside of 8.12% from the company's current price.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on ANET. KeyCorp increased their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wedbush assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $135.79.

Arista Networks Trading Up 17.4%

Shares of ANET traded up $20.61 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $138.73. 25,962,847 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,700,207. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $139.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.23 billion, a PE ratio of 58.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day moving average of $102.57 and a 200-day moving average of $94.98.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.19, for a total value of $2,890,940.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 582,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $64,757,056. The trade was a 4.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 864 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.68, for a total value of $99,083.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,460 shares of the company's stock, valued at $855,512.80. This represents a 10.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,443,742 shares of company stock valued at $395,523,885. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,581,955,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 277.5% during 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 last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in Arista Networks by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 22,959,214 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,778,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889,198 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $933,626,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.8% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,248,169,000 after buying an additional 8,671,235 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.