Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.8% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price dropped 1.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $125.78 and last traded at $127.5060. Approximately 6,293,933 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 7,793,275 shares. The stock had previously closed at $129.83.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.8%

The business’s 50-day moving average is $128.65 and its 200-day moving average is $133.30. The company has a market capitalization of $160.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.61, for a total value of $3,858,300.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,668,843.36. This trade represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total transaction of $1,070,320.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,379,321.36. This represents a 31.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 160,464 shares of company stock worth $20,494,988. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Global Trust Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 33.0% in the third quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,808,000 after purchasing an additional 4,780 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 23.8% in the 2nd quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 40,404 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,134,000 after purchasing an additional 7,779 shares during the last quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,998,000 after buying an additional 2,815 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after buying an additional 1,136,167 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $247,451,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.