Jennison Associates LLC Has $27.88 Million Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Jennison Associates LLC lowered its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 92.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 359,882 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 4,272,848 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $27,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total value of $794,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 65,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,536,298.24. This represents a 10.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 748,444 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,900. This trade represents a 96.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,123,370 shares of company stock valued at $113,157,408 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $111.40.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $111.63. 6,680,808 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,670,595. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $133.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.40. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $97.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.78.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.48% and a net margin of 40.72%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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