Sit Investment Associates Inc. Buys 196,871 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Sit Investment Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 293.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 264,033 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 196,871 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $29,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,397,833,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 313.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,013,511 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,217,323,000 after purchasing an additional 8,352,816 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup increased their price target on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total value of $620,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 139,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,840,249.20. This represents a 5.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $48,840,431. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET opened at $64.28 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.08 and a 52-week high of $133.58. The firm has a market cap of $81.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s fifty day moving average is $94.01 and its 200-day moving average is $101.21.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS 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 the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.