Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Sells 9,402 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Crossmark Global Holdings sold 9,402 shares of Arista, cutting its stake by 4.6% to 196,838 shares valued at about $28.68 million per its latest 13F filing.
• Company insiders have been active sellers — a total of 196,237 shares worth roughly $25.87 million were sold over the last 90 days (including notable sales by Yvonne Wassenaar and Kenneth Duda); insiders now own about 3.39% of the stock.
• Arista beat quarterly expectations (EPS $0.82 vs. $0.75 estimate; revenue $2.49B, up 28.9% YoY), prompting analyst price-target raises (several to $185–$200 and a consensus of $176.88), and the shares were trading higher intraday.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 196,838 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 9,402 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $28,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Global Trust Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 33.0% in the third quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,808,000 after acquiring an additional 4,780 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $8,263,000. National Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,296,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter worth $247,451,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total value of $240,378.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. This represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.44, for a total value of $4,558,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,848,301.44. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 196,237 shares of company stock valued at $25,865,760 over the last ninety days. 3.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Up 8.3%

Shares of ANET opened at $134.95 on Thursday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $134.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $137.17. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $59.43 and a 12 month high of $164.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.46.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ANET. UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $176.88.

Arista Networks Company 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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