AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc Has $27.25 Million Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc trimmed its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 24.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 351,816 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 113,813 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $27,248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 321.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $202,000. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 303.8% in the fourth quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 1,604 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 345.3% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 11,751 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,357,000 after acquiring an additional 9,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 356.2% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 26,977 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,982,000 after acquiring an additional 21,064 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ANET. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $112.00 target price for the company. Wedbush assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $89.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total transaction of $620,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 139,784 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,249.20. This trade represents a 5.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 177,690 shares of company stock valued at $15,442,765. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $89.75 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $59.43 and a one year high of $133.58. The firm has a market cap of $112.72 billion, a PE ratio of 40.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $82.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.56.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

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.