Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 4.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Shares jumped 4.2% after JPMorgan raised its price target from $190 to $200 and kept an "overweight" rating; analysts' consensus remains a Buy with a $177.83 target.
• Arista beat quarterly expectations with $0.82 EPS versus $0.75 expected and revenue of $2.49B versus $2.38B, up 28.9% year-over-year; the company has a market cap of $202.01B and a trailing P/E of 58.25.
• Insiders sold 312,444 shares worth about $43.8M last quarter (including Kenneth Duda's sale of 32,000 shares), leaving insiders with 3.39% ownership while institutional investors hold roughly 82.47% of the stock.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 4.2% on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $190.00 to $200.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $161.01 and last traded at $160.7690. Approximately 7,185,606 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 7,813,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.33.

ANET has been the topic of several other research reports. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a "buy" rating and a $161.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $178.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $177.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm'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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total transaction of $1,123,440.00. Following the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. The trade was a 44.98% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 312,444 shares of company stock worth $43,807,814 in the last quarter. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock worth $13,258,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,154,570,000 after purchasing an additional 628,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,558,563,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The business's 50 day moving average is $135.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.01 billion, a PE ratio of 58.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.48.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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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