Short Interest in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Increases By 272.0%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 11,160,000 shares, an increase of 272.0% from the November 15th total of 3,000,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,390,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 3,344 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.67, for a total value of $323,264.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,724 shares in the company, valued at $6,836,889.08. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 354,964 shares of company stock valued at $36,974,705. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Arista Networks by 500.0% during the second quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 78 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $35,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:ANET traded up $3.86 on Friday, reaching $110.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,907,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,809,181. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $56.65 and a 1-year high of $112.46. The firm has a market cap of $139.51 billion, a PE ratio of 53.23, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $100.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $90.84.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ANET. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $107.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.88.

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.