Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price was up 2% during trading on Friday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $120.00 to $135.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $120.33 and last traded at $120.48. Approximately 1,792,171 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 5,834,124 shares. The stock had previously closed at $118.13.

ANET has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $105.25 price objective (up previously from $86.25) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.83.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.30, for a total value of $786,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 179,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,671,868.28. This trade represents a 4.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 345,316 shares of company stock valued at $37,761,976. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Arista Networks by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 596,220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $208,962,000 after buying an additional 32,480 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 8.8% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,650 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 34,019 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,923,000 after purchasing an additional 2,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trust Investment Advisors acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $215,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $107.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.74. The firm has a market cap of $150.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal 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.