Meritage Portfolio Management Has $13.53 Million Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Meritage Portfolio Management trimmed its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 2.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 174,573 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 3,778 shares during the period. Arista Networks comprises about 0.9% of Meritage Portfolio Management's holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Meritage Portfolio Management's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $13,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Krane Funds Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at about $225,000. Compound Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $194,000. Coastline Trust Co grew its position in Arista Networks by 1,006.8% during the 1st quarter. Coastline Trust Co now owns 487 shares of the technology company's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC now owns 17,706 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,372,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $185,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,900. This trade represents a 96.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.18, for a total value of $705,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 123,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,915,273.12. This represents a 6.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,123,400 shares of company stock valued at $113,159,520 over the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Barclays reduced 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. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wedbush began coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $109.33.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock traded up $1.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $102.45. The company had a trading volume of 5,296,699 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,105,538. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $133.58. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.44 and a 200 day moving average of $95.40. The firm has a market cap of $128.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.40.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side 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 program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is 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.