Short Interest in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Increases By 38.5%

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 15,210,000 shares, a growth of 38.5% from the February 13th total of 10,980,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 9,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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In other Arista Networks news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $4,593,214.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $108.00 target price (up previously from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $114.00.

Read Our Latest Report on Arista Networks

Arista Networks Stock Performance

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NYSE:ANET traded up $3.44 on Friday, hitting $83.58. 8,577,067 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,686,261. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. Arista Networks has a 52 week low of $60.08 and a 52 week high of $133.58. The company's 50-day moving average price is $105.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.82.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 2.2 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.

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