Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Stake Raised by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 895.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,900 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 17,900 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ANET. FMR LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 330.8% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,248,169,000 after buying an additional 8,671,235 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 271.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,190,118 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,236,844,000 after acquiring an additional 8,175,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 354.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,942,816 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,098,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,753,991 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $117.56 on Monday. The company's 50-day moving average is $101.48 and its 200-day moving average is $94.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $147.65 billion, a PE ratio of 49.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $133.57.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on ANET. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $112.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $114.00.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total value of $7,205,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,168,748.32. The trade was a 86.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the company'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 directly owned 30,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,900. This represents a 96.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,635,562 shares of company stock worth $291,955,743 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Company 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.

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