Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 3.8% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 3.8% on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $73.00 to $100.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $91.06 and last traded at $91.18. 3,084,089 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 11,226,331 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.84.

Several other brokerages have also commented on ANET. Citigroup decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $121.00 to $92.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $108.36.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total transaction of $896,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 155,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. This trade represents a 4.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 412,355 shares of company stock valued at $39,446,799 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during 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 during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in 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 buying an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,665,829,000 after buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after buying 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 Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $79.19 and a 200-day moving average of $97.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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.

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