Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Lifted to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has $320.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $240.00.

ANET has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a sell rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $285.53.

Arista Networks Trading Up 4.8 %

Shares of ANET stock opened at $274.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $85.79 billion, a PE ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.13. Arista Networks has a 12-month low of $131.68 and a 12-month high of $307.74. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $279.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $250.02.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.25 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.52, for a total value of $573,040.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 60,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,462,247.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 420 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.08, for a total value of $111,753.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.52, for a total value of $573,040.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 60,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,462,247.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 335,974 shares of company stock worth $96,252,685. 18.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC increased its position in Arista Networks by 32.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,897,906,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,864 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $586,051,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,946,338,000 after buying an additional 1,596,040 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 439.3% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,259,305 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $231,624,000 after buying an additional 1,025,815 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 25,188.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 613,739 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,445,420,000 after acquiring an additional 611,312 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.