Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.4% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) dropped 1.4% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $145.33 and last traded at $148.1070. Approximately 8,897,346 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 6% from the average daily volume of 8,387,326 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $178.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.91, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $130.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The firm’s revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total value of $1,070,320.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,379,321.36. This represents a 31.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This trade represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock worth $27,687,068. Insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 19,976 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,979 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 839,670 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,022,000 after purchasing an additional 4,057 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 176,921 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,182,000 after buying an additional 1,928 shares in the last quarter. Wagner Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Wagner Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,356 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $571,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Wealth LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 4,116 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $539,000 after buying an additional 1,010 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.