Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 4.3% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price was down 4.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $141.44 and last traded at $141.79. Approximately 6,357,455 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 23% from the average daily volume of 8,282,553 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $130.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.28. The company has a market cap of $178.55 billion, a PE ratio of 53.91, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.61, for a total transaction of $3,858,300.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,668,843.36. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Global Trust Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 33.0% during the 3rd quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,808,000 after acquiring an additional 4,780 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its position in Arista Networks by 23.8% during the second quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 40,404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,134,000 after acquiring an additional 7,779 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $8,263,000. National Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth about $1,296,000. Finally, Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 39,073 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,998,000 after buying an additional 2,815 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.