Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 1.6% Higher

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded up 1.6% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $279.16 and last traded at $278.82. 716,796 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 2,434,364 shares. The stock had previously closed at $274.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $310.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $268.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.50.

Arista Networks Stock Up 6.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $91.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $279.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $251.25.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.25 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.20 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total transaction of $57,184.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares in the company, valued at $721,704.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Arista Networks news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total transaction of $57,184.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares in the company, valued at $721,704.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total transaction of $388,155.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,575,312.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 337,054 shares of company stock worth $96,529,086. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AXQ Capital LP acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the third quarter worth about $791,000. Advisor Resource Council raised its position in Arista Networks by 507.9% in the fourth quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 7,021 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 5,866 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 4,445 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,024,220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $716,649,000 after purchasing an additional 16,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc raised its position in Arista Networks by 62.7% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 113,851 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,813,000 after purchasing an additional 43,889 shares in the last quarter. 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.