Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 3% on Analyst Downgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was down 3% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $171.00 to $159.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as low as $121.63 and last traded at $122.3280. Approximately 8,304,282 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 9,810,228 shares. The stock had previously closed at $126.13.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on ANET. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price objective (up from $143.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $163.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.61, for a total value of $3,343,860.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 542,400 shares in the company, valued at $69,758,064. The trade was a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.09, for a total transaction of $1,024,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,302,672.56. This represents a 23.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 218,464 shares of company stock valued at $30,309,988 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bare Financial Services Inc raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 141.3% during the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Saudi Central Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $138.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $127.48. The firm has a market cap of $154.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.41.

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

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.