Insider Selling: Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Director Sells 356 Shares of Stock

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 356 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.91, for a total value of $97,867.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,570 shares in the company, valued at $706,518.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Kelly Bodnar Battles also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, February 13th, Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 278 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.81, for a total value of $73,895.18.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET traded up $4.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $296.19. 2,588,129 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,528,108. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $133.42 and a 52 week high of $307.74. The company has a market cap of $92.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.08, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $279.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.54.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.20 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,946,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,040 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 32.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,897,906,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,864 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,136,348 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,387,211,000 after acquiring an additional 55,312 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.8% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,049,416 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $884,270,000 after acquiring an additional 25,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $586,051,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $240.00 to $320.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $311.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $310.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $293.00.

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.