Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.

Key Points

• Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. trimmed its position by 7.5%, selling 294,389 Arista shares in Q4 and now holds 3,651,698 shares (~0.29% of the company) worth about $478.48 million, making ANET its 19th-largest holding.
• Arista beat expectations in the most recent quarter with EPS of $0.82 vs. $0.75 expected and revenue of $2.49 billion (up 28.9% year-over-year).
• Significant insider selling (199,632 shares worth ~$26.9M over three months) has occurred even as analysts show a "Moderate Buy" consensus and an average price target of $176.44, with several firms raising targets and ratings.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. trimmed its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,651,698 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 294,389 shares during the period. Arista Networks comprises about 0.7% of Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.'s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned approximately 0.29% of Arista Networks worth $478,482,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,000,830 shares of the technology company's stock worth $14,571,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,730 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,342,551 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,752,573,000 after purchasing an additional 245,976 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,094,255 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,470,834,000 after purchasing an additional 181,813 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,396,939,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,742,112 shares of the technology company's stock worth $892,919,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,303 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET opened at $147.27 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $66.59 and a one year high of $164.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.05 billion, a PE ratio of 53.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.48. The business's 50 day moving average price is $133.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.85.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total value of $240,378.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. This represents a 12.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $4,292,480.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 199,632 shares of company stock worth $26,873,604. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $176.44.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista's offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista's product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company's hardware platforms.

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