Arista Networks Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:ANET)

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 16,147 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 52% compared to the typical daily volume of 10,643 call options.

Arista Networks Stock Up 5.2 %

ANET stock opened at $112.39 on Friday. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $56.65 and a twelve month high of $112.77. The company has a market cap of $141.58 billion, a PE ratio of 53.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.84.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $107.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $105.25 target price (up from $86.25) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.67, for a total transaction of $7,893,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,280,374.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.19, for a total value of $132,707.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,260 shares in the company, valued at $915,038.10. This represents a 12.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 354,964 shares of company stock worth $36,974,705 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 500.0% in the 2nd quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 78 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth $33,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.