Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 304.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 7.63% of Arista Networks worth $10,620,270,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Caitlin John LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% during the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 335.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total value of $892,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 163,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,263,553.84. This trade represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $83.26 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.08 and a 52-week high of $133.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $104.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $102.53 and a 200-day moving average of $101.74.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

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.