Snowden Capital Advisors LLC Has $1.75 Million Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Snowden Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 284.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 15,824 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,712 shares during the quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. KGI Securities lowered shares of Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.14.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.49, for a total transaction of $102,187.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,480 shares in the company, valued at $512,305.20. This represents a 16.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 410,867 shares of company stock valued at $37,056,669. 3.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $96.31 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $80.29 and its 200-day moving average is $97.20. The stock has a market cap of $120.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate 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 plan on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.