Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 1.6% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Shares rose about 1.6% intraday to roughly $166.87 after the company reported strong results, trading volume was about 22% below its average session volume.
• Arista beat quarterly estimates with $0.82 EPS vs. $0.75 expected and $2.49B revenue (up 28.9% year-over-year), and the company shows high profitability (net margin ~39%, ROE ~30%).
• Analysts are broadly bullish—multiple firms raised price targets and ratings, leaving a MarketBeat consensus of "Buy" with a consensus target of $177.83—while company insiders have recently sold significant shares under 10b5‑1 plans.

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) shot up 1.6% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $167.90 and last traded at $166.8740. 6,068,393 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 7,796,000 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ANET. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a "buy" rating and a $161.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $177.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $210.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.48. The company's 50 day moving average price is $136.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.24.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 8,890 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.02, for a total transaction of $1,378,127.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 60,734 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,414,984.68. This represents a 12.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 112,812 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.11, for a total value of $16,934,209.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,488,640.87. This represents a 91.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 322,729 shares of company stock valued at $45,399,474. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 56.7% during the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

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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