Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 4.9% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) fell 4.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $122.81 and last traded at $123.77. 8,918,964 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 15% from the average session volume of 7,773,386 shares. The stock had previously closed at $130.08.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $136.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 target price (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.5%

The firm has a market capitalization of $154.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $130.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.65.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The business’s revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total value of $1,070,320.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,379,321.36. The trade was a 31.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total transaction of $3,694,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,598,124.16. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $28,488,988 over the last quarter. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,697,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,175 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc raised its position in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 4,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 8,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,219,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.