Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Short Interest Up 22.1% in December

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,630,000 shares, a growth of 22.1% from the November 30th total of 11,160,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,430,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $100.00 to $106.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.70.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.67, for a total value of $7,893,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,280,374.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 340,660 shares of company stock valued at $35,609,360. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. LGT Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 28.2% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 132 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 2,133.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 134 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of Arista Networks stock traded down $0.92 on Tuesday, hitting $110.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,420,185 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,687,398. The company has a market capitalization of $139.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10. Arista Networks has a 52-week low of $56.65 and a 52-week high of $116.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $103.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $94.17.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

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.