Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 3.8% Following Insider Selling

Key Points

• Shares fell 3.8%, trading as low as $128.90 (last $131.05) on heavier volume (11.32M shares, +39% vs. average) after insider selling was disclosed.
• Insider Kenneth Duda sold a total of 58,000 shares in two March 17 transactions for roughly $7.78M, materially reducing his stake, and Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,395 shares.
• Analysts remain broadly positive with a consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $176.47, and Arista recently beat EPS and revenue estimates while reporting strong margins.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price traded down 3.8% on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $128.90 and last traded at $131.0530. 11,323,061 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 39% from the average session volume of 8,162,889 shares. The stock had previously closed at $136.26.

Specifically, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,487,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 502,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $67,391,936. This trade represents a 4.92% 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, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,395 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.34, for a total transaction of $187,404.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,179 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,501,786.86. This represents a 11.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on ANET. UBS Group set a $200.00 price objective on Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.8%

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.30. The firm has a market cap of $164.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.46.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. The company's revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 48.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,023 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,742,000 after purchasing an additional 680 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.

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