Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 4% – Should You Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares dropped 4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $81.45 and last traded at $82.58. Approximately 5,602,822 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 48% from the average daily volume of 10,675,872 shares. The stock had previously closed at $86.01.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $106.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $107.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.41, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $102.27.

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

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 17,433 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.57, for a total transaction of $1,683,504.81. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,171.04. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 431,441 shares of company stock valued at $45,713,162. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in 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 buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew 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 valued at $2,328,869,000 after buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.