National Bank of Canada FI Grows Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 28.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 128,271 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 28,697 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $40,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 19.6% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 2,463 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $519,000. Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 5,574 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $847,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 43.8% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 2,521 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $594,000 after buying an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 6.0 %

NYSE:ANET traded down $20.73 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $325.92. 2,644,732 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,435,764. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.10 and a 52 week high of $376.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.39, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $330.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $294.33.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.24. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.12% and a net margin of 37.64%. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 7.06 EPS for the current year.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on ANET. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Arista Networks from $302.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $311.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $330.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $320.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total transaction of $388,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,575,312.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 416 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 value of $105,888.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.77, for a total value of $388,155.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,575,312.37. 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 quarter. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.