Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 8% on Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded down 8% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $101.62 and last traded at $102.18. 10,186,871 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 8% from the average session volume of 9,423,939 shares. The stock had previously closed at $111.06.

Specifically, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This represents a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ANET shares. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective (up previously from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Trading Down 7.9 %

The stock has a market cap of $128.92 billion, a PE ratio of 49.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $114.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $101.54.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% during 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. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.