Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on the stock from $145.00 to $130.00. The stock had previously closed at $90.77, but opened at $85.88. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Arista Networks shares last traded at $85.08, with a volume of 6,360,334 shares.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $108.00 to $76.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $108.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $9,248,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,500,155.36. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 412,355 shares of company stock worth $39,259,279 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth 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. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 218.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $106.86 billion, a PE ratio of 38.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $79.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company's revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans 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.

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