Kentucky Retirement Systems Purchases New Shares in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Kentucky Retirement Systems purchased a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 70,363 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,452,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in 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 buying an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.23, for a total transaction of $2,766,900.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,196,776.48. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,492 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.49, for a total value of $102,187.08. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,480 shares in the company, valued at $512,305.20. This trade represents a 16.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 161,690 shares of company stock valued at $14,525,085. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. KGI Securities downgraded Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wedbush started coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $108.20.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET stock opened at $86.18 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $108.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.48, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $87.52 and a 200-day moving average of $95.85.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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

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.