Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 1.6% Higher – Should You Buy?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) were up 1.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $114.15 and last traded at $112.27. Approximately 1,175,663 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 8,687,398 shares. The stock had previously closed at $110.53.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.70.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $104.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.81. The company has a market capitalization of $145.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.38, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 2,496 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.83, for a total value of $241,693.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.67, for a total value of $7,893,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,280,374.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 337,316 shares of company stock valued at $35,286,096 in the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. HM Payson & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 28.2% in the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2,133.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 134 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.