Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 3.1% After Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares fell 3.1% on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $127.26 and last traded at $129.3130. 6,851,680 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 8,789,526 shares. The stock had previously closed at $133.50.

Specifically, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. The trade was a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total transaction of $54,041.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,220,283.74. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group set a $200.00 target price on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.88.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.7%

The company has a market cap of $156.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.46. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $134.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $137.19.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Sankala Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

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.