Bamco Inc. NY Acquires Shares of 168,805 Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Bamco Inc. NY acquired a new position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 168,805 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $18,658,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Caitlin John LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 174.7% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 335.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 264 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 264 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 300.0% during the fourth quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ANET traded down $4.26 on Wednesday, hitting $86.51. 17,514,827 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,199,145. The company has a market cap of $108.62 billion, a PE ratio of 38.97, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.50. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $9,248,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,500,155.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This represents a 15.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 412,355 shares of company stock valued at $39,259,279 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $89.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, KGI Securities cut Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $106.57.

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.