Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 6% - Time to Buy?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) traded up 6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $92.87 and last traded at $91.75. 3,194,308 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 9,033,123 shares. The stock had previously closed at $86.52.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $107.14.

Arista Networks Trading Up 0.2%

The company has a market capitalization of $120.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day moving average of $80.29 and a 200-day moving average of $97.20.

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

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.03, for a total value of $712,240.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 147,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,157,209.52. This represents a 5.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 410,867 shares of company stock worth $37,056,669 over the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the 4th 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 boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.