Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Receives $107.38 Average PT from Analysts

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $107.38.

ANET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Arista Networks from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $106.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.58, for a total transaction of $708,640.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 131,784 shares in the company, valued at $11,673,426.72. This trade represents a 5.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total value of $7,205,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,168,748.32. This trade represents a 86.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 105,690 shares of company stock worth $9,360,205. Insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after purchasing an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 9.0% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 22,959,214 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,778,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889,198 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $94.97 on Thursday. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.58. The company has a market capitalization of $119.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.78, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $86.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.28.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.