Nemes Rush Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Key Points

• Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired 5,311 shares of Arista Networks, valued at approximately $411,000, as reported in their recent SEC filing.
• CEO Jayshree Ullal significantly reduced her ownership by selling 748,444 shares for over $76 million, which is a 96.15% decrease in her stake.
• Analysts have recently increased their price targets for Arista Networks, with an average consensus price target of $111.40 and many analysts giving it a "buy" rating.

Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,311 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $411,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $5,984,000. Ibex Wealth Advisors raised its position in Arista Networks by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 58,093 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,501,000 after purchasing an additional 7,329 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $629,000. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 227.7% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,814,613 shares of the technology company's stock worth $863,749,000 after buying an additional 5,429,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Motley Fool Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 357.3% during the fourth quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 65,087 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,194,000 after buying an additional 50,855 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total transaction of $794,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 65,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,536,298.24. This represents a 10.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total transaction of $7,205,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,168,748.32. The trade was a 86.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,177,878 shares of company stock valued at $119,281,861. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. KGI Securities downgraded shares of Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $112.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy 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 price target of $111.40.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8%

ANET stock traded up $3.25 on Monday, hitting $117.53. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,414,782 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,732,731. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $133.57. The stock has a market cap of $147.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $99.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $94.67.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business's revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.