Jefferies Financial Group Upgrades Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) to “Buy”

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $320.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $240.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.62% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ANET. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $272.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $313.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Melius raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.53.

Arista Networks Trading Up 4.8 %

Shares of ANET stock opened at $274.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $85.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $279.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.25. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $131.68 and a twelve month high of $307.74.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $922,301.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at $922,301.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 420 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.08, for a total transaction of $111,753.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 335,974 shares of company stock worth $96,252,685 over the last three months. 18.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. First Command Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 872.7% in the first quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 107 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.