Bristlecone Advisors LLC Sells 757 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Bristlecone Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 4.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,017 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 757 shares during the quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,318,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after purchasing an additional 1,771,982 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 330.8% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,248,169,000 after purchasing an additional 8,671,235 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Arista Networks by 354.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,942,816 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,098,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,753,991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 37.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,552,484 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $740,126,000 after purchasing an additional 2,594,184 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $151.00 price objective (up from $119.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $123.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $138.07.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $139.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $174.89 billion, a PE ratio of 54.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $141.01. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $105.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.54.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. The company’s revenue was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.22, for a total transaction of $243,175,176.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,698,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $776,191,640.28. This trade represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.19, for a total transaction of $3,335,700.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,442,801.44. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,228,907 shares of company stock worth $638,699,061. Insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

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.