10,125 Shares in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Acquired by Wright Investors Service Inc.

Wright Investors Service Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 10,125 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $784,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th 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. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during 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 buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.47.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total value of $6,788,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 237,538 shares of company stock worth $20,748,219. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $86.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $81.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.59. The stock has a market cap of $108.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.96, 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.

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

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.