Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 0.6% – Should You Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were down 0.6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $82.35 and last traded at $83.52. Approximately 2,753,469 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 8,629,769 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.99.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 target price (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.00.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.1 %

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $104.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.89. The stock has a market cap of $105.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.78, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th 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 lifted its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.