Strengthening Families & Communities LLC Acquires New Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Strengthening Families & Communities LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 22,649 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,300,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,228,177,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $833,630,000 after buying an additional 5,525,828 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 193.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,065,054 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $721,342,000 after purchasing an additional 4,656,021 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $247,451,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 14.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,494,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,073,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350,593 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total transaction of $1,070,320.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,379,321.36. This trade represents a 31.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 208,464 shares of company stock worth $26,430,108 in the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Down 2.4%

ANET stock opened at $138.35 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $164.94. The company has a market cap of $174.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.60, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $131.31 and a 200-day moving average of $135.65.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.40 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ANET. Zacks Research cut Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold 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 $164.44.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.