Morgan Stanley Raises Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Price Target to $355.00

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $325.00 to $355.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on ANET. Erste Group Bank restated a buy rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, June 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $313.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. KeyCorp raised their target price on Arista Networks from $349.00 to $432.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $340.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $330.18.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ANET opened at $330.56 on Thursday. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $149.10 and a 1-year high of $376.50. The stock has a market cap of $103.58 billion, a PE ratio of 46.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $329.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $292.51.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.24. Arista Networks had a net margin of 37.64% and a return on equity of 31.12%. The company had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 1,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total value of $265,739.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.70, for a total transaction of $7,414,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,550.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 1,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total transaction of $265,739.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 210,076 shares of company stock valued at $68,928,479 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Arista Networks by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 20,221 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,779,000 after acquiring an additional 2,686 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 19.6% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 2,463 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Resource Council raised its stake in Arista Networks by 507.9% in the fourth quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 7,021 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 5,866 shares in the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,171,000. Finally, Avalon Capital Management purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $491,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.