Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 298.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 230,304 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 172,568 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks comprises 1.3% of Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $25,456,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 6.9% during the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $160,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Intellectus Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Altman Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,250,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,907 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $732,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8 %

Arista Networks stock opened at $115.43 on Thursday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.08 and a 1-year high of $133.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.41 billion, a PE ratio of 55.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $112.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.36.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen 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 $105.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total value of $825,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 6,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.58, for a total transaction of $625,013.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,391.76. This trade represents a 95.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 255,832 shares of company stock worth $28,538,497 over the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.