Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 8.3%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded down 8.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $289.41 and last traded at $290.34. 2,479,303 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 1% from the average session volume of 2,510,886 shares. The stock had previously closed at $316.50.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $268.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $306.00 to $349.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $313.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $295.22.

Arista Networks Trading Down 4.8 %

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $286.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.16. The stock has a market cap of $94.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.13.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.20 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 87,418 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.81, for a total transaction of $24,373,012.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,929,639.61. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 87,418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.81, for a total transaction of $24,373,012.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,929,639.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 14,416 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.03, for a total transaction of $4,700,048.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 252,382 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,284,103.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 394,836 shares of company stock worth $115,437,764 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth about $42,000. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 9.5% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 13,786 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,998,000 after purchasing an additional 1,196 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the first quarter worth approximately $521,767,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $3,403,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 5,204.0% in the 1st quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 5,357 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,553,000 after acquiring an additional 5,256 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.