Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 4.3% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) dropped 4.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $141.44 and last traded at $141.79. Approximately 6,357,455 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 23% from the average daily volume of 8,282,553 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.15.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average is $130.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $134.85. The firm has a market cap of $178.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 8,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total value of $1,070,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at $2,379,321.36. This represents a 31.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 141.3% in the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.