Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 3.1% - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Shares rose 3.1% to $151.93 on Monday with about 7.21 million shares traded (roughly 8% below average), valuing Arista at approximately $190.9 billion.
• Multiple firms (Wells Fargo, Piper Sandler, KeyCorp, Barclays) recently raised price targets, leaving a MarketBeat consensus of Moderate Buy and a consensus target of $176.44.
• Arista beat the quarter's estimates with EPS $0.82 vs. $0.75 and revenue $2.49B vs. $2.38B (revenue +28.9% YoY), while reporting a 38.99% net margin and 30.37% ROE.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 3.1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $152.14 and last traded at $151.9260. Approximately 7,206,632 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 7,861,718 shares. The stock had previously closed at $147.35.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $184.00 price target (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $176.44.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.1%

The firm has a market capitalization of $190.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $133.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.81.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.95, for a total value of $1,007,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 216,333 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,247,141.35. This trade represents a 3.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total value of $54,041.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,529 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,220,283.74. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 199,632 shares of company stock valued at $26,873,604 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,558,563,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company's stock worth $833,630,000 after buying an additional 5,525,828 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,396,939,000 after buying an additional 4,332,659 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock worth $525,741,000 after buying an additional 3,890,146 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,032,302,000 after buying an additional 2,934,098 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

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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