HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Decreases Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 62.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,891 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 28,549 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,364,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during 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 fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,397,833,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $111.40.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.43, for a total transaction of $76,663,118.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,072,900. The trade was a 96.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was 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 owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,168,748.32. The trade was a 86.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,177,878 shares of company stock worth $119,281,861. 3.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET stock traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $115.01. 1,732,428 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,524,292. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $59.43 and a 12 month high of $133.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $144.45 billion, a PE ratio of 48.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.40.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities 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 stock 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 reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.