Allen Investment Management LLC Takes $32.30 Million Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Key Points

• Allen Investment Management LLC acquired 416,849 shares of Arista Networks, Inc. for approximately $32.3 million in the first quarter.
• CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares for over $76.6 million, significantly reducing their ownership by 96.15%.
• Arista Networks announced a share buyback program authorizing up to $1.5 billion to repurchase outstanding shares, indicating confidence in the company’s valuation.

Allen Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 416,849 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $32,297,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Pier 88 Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Pier 88 Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,960 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $617,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 31.3% during the 1st quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 525 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors grew its stake in Arista Networks by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 5,061 shares of the technology company's stock worth $392,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 45.8% in the first quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 455 shares of the technology company's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 0.8% in the first quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 21,449 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,662,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 65,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,536,298.24. This represents a 10.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.43, for a total transaction of $76,663,118.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 30,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,072,900. The trade was a 96.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,177,878 shares of company stock valued at $119,281,861. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $114.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,866,258 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,009,131. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $98.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $94.80. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $133.57. The company has a market cap of $143.64 billion, a PE ratio of 48.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.40.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company's revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $112.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $111.40.

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.