Rafferty Asset Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 309.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 412,002 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 311,430 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $45,539,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,388,000. Redwood Financial Network Corp raised its position in Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 4,212 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $466,000 after purchasing an additional 3,159 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Redwood Investments LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 223.3% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 31,833 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,519,000 after purchasing an additional 21,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Arista Networks by 244.0% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,021,154 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $333,928,000 after purchasing an additional 2,143,032 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total transaction of $620,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 139,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,840,249.20. This represents a 5.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 412,355 shares of company stock worth $37,216,079. Insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.14.

Arista Networks Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of ANET opened at $97.86 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $97.25. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $59.43 and a 12 month high of $133.58. The company has a market cap of $122.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share 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 repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Arista Networks

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.