Breakwater Capital Group Makes New $370,000 Investment in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Breakwater Capital Group purchased a new position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,781 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $370,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ANET. Caitlin John LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% during the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 335.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4.4% in the first quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 4,645 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 381.5% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 260 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 415.7% in the 4th quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 263 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ANET. Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $107.47.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ANET traded up $2.11 on Friday, hitting $97.29. The stock had a trading volume of 6,620,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,059,879. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $83.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $96.57. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.58. The company has a market capitalization of $122.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.37.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.58, for a total transaction of $708,640.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 131,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,673,426.72. This represents a 5.72% 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, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.07, for a total transaction of $7,205,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,168,748.32. This represents a 86.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 105,690 shares of company stock worth $9,360,205 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

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.