Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $113.79.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated 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 increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,405,171.04. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 431,441 shares of company stock valued at $45,713,162. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $85.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $108.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $111.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.27. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $60.08 and a 1 year high of $133.57.

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

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.