Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 2.9% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares fell 2.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $99.82 and last traded at $100.87. 4,906,262 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 9,728,888 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.92.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ANET. StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $106.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $113.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.70. The stock has a market cap of $123.97 billion, a PE ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the company’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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. This represents a 15.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 260,056 shares of company stock worth $30,225,623 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

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.