Arizona State Retirement System Invests $24.35 Million in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Arizona State Retirement System purchased a new position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 314,249 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $24,348,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ANET. Needham & Company LLC began coverage on Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $89.00 target price (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $110.07.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $108.71 on Friday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $95.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.98. The company has a market cap of $136.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.40. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.43 and a 52-week high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The business 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%. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total transaction of $7,205,600.00. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 stock was sold at an average price of $88.18, for a total value of $705,440.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 123,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,915,273.12. This trade represents a 6.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,123,370 shares of company stock valued at $113,157,408 over the last 90 days. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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