Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The company traded as high as $112.46 and last traded at $110.79, with a volume of 1371812 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $106.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ANET. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.88.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $101.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.18. The firm has a market cap of $141.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.67, for a total value of $7,893,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,280,374.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 2,496 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.09, for a total value of $242,342.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 354,964 shares of company stock valued at $36,974,705. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. now owns 63,244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $24,274,000 after buying an additional 2,219 shares in the last quarter. Deepwater Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at about $15,084,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 69.8% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 9,028 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,711 shares during the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,318,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 13,224 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,076,000 after purchasing an additional 2,216 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.