Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $78.49, but opened at $75.73. Arista Networks shares last traded at $79.24, with a volume of 578,651 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $108.00 target price (up previously from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $100.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50 day moving average is $97.45 and its 200-day moving average is $101.75.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This trade represents a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after buying an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.