OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC Takes Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 30,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,316,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Caitlin John LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 335.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. KGI Securities lowered Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup raised their price target on Arista Networks from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $89.00 price target (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.07.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $92.26 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $115.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.56, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $133.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.25.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This represents a 15.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 412,355 shares of company stock valued at $37,216,079. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks 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.