Woodline Partners LP Acquires 370,110 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 886.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 411,874 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 370,110 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $45,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased 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 valued at $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. KGI Securities cut shares of Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.14.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET opened at $96.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.46 billion, a PE ratio of 43.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.19. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.43 and a 52-week high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This trade represents a 59.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 17,433 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.57, for a total transaction of $1,683,504.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 410,867 shares of company stock worth $37,056,669. Company 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.