Cooper Financial Group Purchases Shares of 25,698 Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Key Points

• Cooper Financial Group purchased 25,698 shares of Arista Networks, valued at approximately $1,991,000, indicating confidence in the technology company's performance.
• Arista Networks reported a 30.4% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue, with earnings per share of $0.73 surpassing estimates.
• Multiple hedge funds have recently adjusted their stakes in Arista Networks, with institutional investors now holding 82.47% of the company's stock.

Cooper Financial Group purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 25,698 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,991,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,663,000. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 168,372 shares of the technology company's stock worth $13,045,000 after buying an additional 3,140 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 44.0% in the 1st quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 117,245 shares of the technology company's stock worth $9,084,000 after buying an additional 35,815 shares during the last quarter. True North Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $211,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 752,231 shares of the technology company's stock worth $58,283,000 after buying an additional 143,026 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $139.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $174.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.37. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $105.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.30. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $141.01.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.11 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.19, for a total transaction of $3,335,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,442,801.44. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.22, for a total transaction of $243,175,176.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,698,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $776,191,640.28. This represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 5,228,907 shares of company stock worth $638,699,061. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $151.00 price objective (up previously from $119.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, KGI Securities downgraded 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 fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $138.07.

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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