Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 0.1% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was down 0.1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $78.47 and last traded at $80.21. Approximately 1,881,158 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 8,723,967 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.25.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $108.00 price target (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $105.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $105.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. On average, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total value of $892,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 163,784 shares in the company, valued at $18,263,553.84. This represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th 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 raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.