Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 2% Following Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was down 2% during mid-day trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $126.92 and last traded at $130.23. Approximately 6,342,842 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average daily volume of 8,833,407 shares. The stock had previously closed at $132.89.

Specifically, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total transaction of $54,041.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at $1,220,283.74. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $184.00 price objective (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.88.

Arista Networks Stock Down 2.0%

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $134.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $137.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,154,570,000 after purchasing an additional 628,146 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 26,374,373 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,698,362,000 after buying an additional 263,272 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.