Capital City Trust Co. FL Trims Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Key Points

• Capital City Trust Co. FL reduced its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. by 8.5% in the 1st quarter, holding 97,153 shares, which accounted for 2.1% of its investment portfolio worth approximately $7.5 million.
• Arista Networks announced a $1.50 billion share repurchase plan indicating the board's confidence in the stock's valuation.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their stakes in Arista Networks, with FMR LLC growing its holdings by over 330%, indicating strong investor interest.

Capital City Trust Co. FL trimmed its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 8.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,153 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 8,984 shares during the period. Arista Networks accounts for about 2.1% of Capital City Trust Co. FL's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Capital City Trust Co. FL's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $7,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth 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 period. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after buying an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th 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. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 330.8% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,248,169,000 after acquiring an additional 8,671,235 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,072,900. This represents a 96.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were 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 directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, 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 1,177,878 shares of company stock worth $119,281,861 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.3%

ANET opened at $114.37 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $94.80. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $143.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.41, a PEG ratio of 3.32 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 30.48%. The business had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KGI Securities cut Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $111.40.

Arista Networks 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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