Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Buys New Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA opened a new position in Arista by buying 12,521 shares (~$1.824M) in the third quarter, and institutional investors now own 82.47% of the company.
• Arista beat Q earnings with $0.82 EPS (vs. $0.75 est.) and revenue of $2.49B, up 28.9% YoY; the company has a $173.8B market cap and a consensus analyst rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $176.88.
• Company insiders have been net sellers recently, disposing of 196,237 shares (~$25.87M) over the last three months, leaving insiders with 3.39% ownership.

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA purchased a new position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 12,521 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,824,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $863,000 after purchasing an additional 5,955 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 48.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,097,000 after buying an additional 3,496 shares during the period. Finally, Midwest Trust Co acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $343,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $138.33 on Thursday. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $134.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $137.32. The company has a market cap of $173.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.46. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. The company's revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.67, for a total value of $1,029,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $229,547.28. This trade represents a 81.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,574 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,665,300.56. This trade represents a 12.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 196,237 shares of company stock valued at $25,865,760 over the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $176.88.

Arista Networks 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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