Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 2.4% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) traded down 2.4% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $82.16 and last traded at $82.32. 3,946,120 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 10,764,095 shares. The stock had previously closed at $84.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $108.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $102.08. The firm has a market cap of $105.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.53, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

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

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 411,289 shares of company stock valued at $42,355,417. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. IronOak Wealth LLC. bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,039,000. TFR Capital LLC. purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,572,000. Plotkin Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $229,000. Probity Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 249.6% during the 4th quarter. Probity Advisors Inc. now owns 24,324 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,689,000 after acquiring an additional 17,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.