Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 4.8% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price rose 4.8% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $97.50 and last traded at $97.29. Approximately 3,786,126 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 10,440,991 shares. The stock had previously closed at $92.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 price target (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $106.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $122.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.67, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $112.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $102.13.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total transaction of $825,300.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,721,666.90. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 260,224 shares of company stock valued at $30,242,856 in the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 grew its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.