Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 4.3% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price fell 4.3% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $141.44 and last traded at $141.79. 6,357,455 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 23% from the average session volume of 8,282,553 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.15.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Trading Down 4.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $178.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $130.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $134.85.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.43, for a total value of $3,339,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 522,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,091,832. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Global Trust Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,808,000 after purchasing an additional 4,780 shares in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 23.8% during the second quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 40,404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,134,000 after purchasing an additional 7,779 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $8,263,000. National Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,296,000. Finally, Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,998,000 after buying an additional 2,815 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.