Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Short Interest Up 30.6% in March

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,860,000 shares, an increase of 30.6% from the February 28th total of 15,210,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 9,890,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 2,133.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 134 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 135 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Caitlin John LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% in the fourth quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 335.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 300.0% during the fourth quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:ANET traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $77.48. 10,756,841 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,876,383. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. Arista Networks has a fifty-two week low of $60.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

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.