LRI Investments LLC Acquires 4,007 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

LRI Investments LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 292.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,375 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,007 shares during the quarter. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 304.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 218.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ANET shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. KGI Securities cut shares of Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $106.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value 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 $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This trade represents a 15.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 412,355 shares of company stock worth $37,216,079. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock opened at $86.15 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $78.94 and a 200 day moving average of $97.29. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $133.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $108.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced 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 return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. 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 posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management 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.