Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 1.8% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price fell 1.8% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $125.78 and last traded at $127.5060. 6,293,933 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average session volume of 7,793,275 shares. The stock had previously closed at $129.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $160.57 billion, a PE ratio of 48.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $128.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $133.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The company’s revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total value of $3,202,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 532,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,570,384. This trade represents a 4.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 160,464 shares of company stock worth $20,494,988 over the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 141.3% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.