Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Has $363.47 Million Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management trimmed its Arista stake by 5.3% in Q4 to 2,773,940 shares (about $363.47 million), representing roughly 0.22% of the company.
• Arista beat expectations for the quarter with EPS of $0.82 vs. $0.75 and revenue of $2.49B vs. $2.38B, with revenue up 28.9% year-over-year and strong margins (ROE 30.37%, net margin 38.99%).
• Insiders sold roughly 199,632 shares (~$26.9M) last quarter while institutional investors own 82.47% of the stock; analysts are mostly bullish (18 Buys, 5 Holds) with an average price target of $176.47 ("Moderate Buy").

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,773,940 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 154,420 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.22% of Arista Networks worth $363,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bare Financial Services Inc lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its stake in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 141.3% in the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $135.98 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $59.43 and a one year high of $164.94. The company's fifty day moving average price is $135.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.24. The company has a market capitalization of $170.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.27, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.46.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,487,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 502,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,391,936. The trade was a 4.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.67, for a total transaction of $1,029,360.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $229,547.28. This represents a 81.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 199,632 shares of company stock valued at $26,936,324 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Profile

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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