First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Purchases 1,000 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 33.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,984 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 32.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,897,906,000 after buying an additional 2,515,864 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 439.3% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,259,305 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $231,624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025,815 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 25,188.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 613,739 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,445,420,000 after purchasing an additional 611,312 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 294.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 745,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $175,604,000 after acquiring an additional 556,568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 122.1% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 826,160 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $151,956,000 after purchasing an additional 454,146 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Melius upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $232.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $225.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 1,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total transaction of $265,739.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.83, for a total transaction of $511,660.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 56,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,568,495.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 1,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total value of $265,739.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 335,974 shares of company stock worth $96,252,685. Corporate insiders own 18.99% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $274.38 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $85.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $278.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $248.71. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.68 and a 1-year high of $307.74.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.