Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Grows Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 312.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 664 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 503 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $73,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Forbes J M & Co. LLP boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 301.5% in the fourth quarter. Forbes J M & Co. LLP now owns 68,296 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,549,000 after purchasing an additional 51,284 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in Arista Networks by 301.9% in the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 23,269 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,572,000 after buying an additional 17,479 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 345.5% in the fourth quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,572 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,053,000 after acquiring an additional 14,403 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 361.5% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,655 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,609,000 after acquiring an additional 25,579 shares during the period. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8 %

ANET stock opened at $118.52 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.81. The company has a market capitalization of $149.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.98, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.08 and a twelve month high of $133.57.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 71,036 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.06, for a total transaction of $7,107,506.98. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,076,289.82. This represents a 50.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 255,832 shares of company stock worth $28,538,497. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Barclays cut their price target on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $105.83.

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.