Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 2% – What’s Next?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares traded down 2% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $108.80 and last traded at $112.90. 4,078,651 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 9,117,562 shares. The stock had previously closed at $115.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $145.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $112.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $99.36.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total value of $825,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,171.04. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 247,832 shares of company stock valued at $27,642,337. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 8.5% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 52,476 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,141,000 after acquiring an additional 4,108 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its position in Arista Networks by 87.1% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,158 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,401 shares in the last quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,106,000. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter worth $1,544,000. Finally, Chesley Taft & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,275,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Arista Networks

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.