Short Interest in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Rises By 22.1%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,630,000 shares, an increase of 22.1% from the November 30th total of 11,160,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,430,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ANET. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 transaction of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 3,344 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.67, for a total value of $323,264.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,724 shares in the company, valued at $6,836,889.08. The trade was a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 340,660 shares of company stock worth $35,609,360 in the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the second quarter worth approximately $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. HM Payson & Co. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 28.2% during the 3rd quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 2,133.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 134 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET traded down $0.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $110.78. 1,582,698 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,679,753. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $56.65 and a 1 year high of $116.94. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $103.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.17. The stock has a market cap of $139.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

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.