Phoenix Financial Ltd. Reduces Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Phoenix Financial Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 33.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 24,547 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 12,298 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted 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 period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 330.8% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,248,169,000 after acquiring an additional 8,671,235 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Trading Up 0.3%

Arista Networks stock opened at $114.37 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $133.57. The stock has a market cap of $143.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.41, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $98.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released 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 30.48%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.43, for a total value of $76,663,118.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,900. This trade represents a 96.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total transaction of $794,880.00. Following the sale, the director owned 65,784 shares in the company, valued at $6,536,298.24. The trade was a 10.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,177,878 shares of company stock worth $119,281,861 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $112.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.40.

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.