Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Grows Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Key Points

• Liontrust Investment Partners LLP increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 39.1% in the first quarter, owning 228,262 shares valued at approximately $17.7 million by the end of the quarter.
• Arista Networks reported earnings of $0.73 per share, surpassing the consensus estimate of $0.65, and its revenue for the quarter was $2.20 billion, exceeding expectations of $2.11 billion.
• The company initiated a $1.50 billion stock buyback plan, signaling that its leadership believes the shares may be undervalued amidst its strong financial performance.

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP boosted its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 39.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 228,262 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 64,142 shares during the quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $17,686,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,269,335 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $175,836,000 after acquiring an additional 28,251 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at $909,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2.9% during the first quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 141,758 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $10,983,000 after acquiring an additional 3,998 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 85.2% in the first quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 74,316 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,758,000 after purchasing an additional 34,185 shares during the period. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 8.7% in the first quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,639,166 shares of the technology company's stock worth $436,923,000 after purchasing an additional 450,288 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET traded up $0.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $137.23. The stock had a trading volume of 6,054,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,893,038. The firm has a market cap of $172.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.97, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $109.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $96.12. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $141.99.

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

Arista Networks declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,698,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at $776,191,640.28. This represents a 23.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,767,742 shares of company stock worth $714,048,068. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on ANET. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, KGI Securities downgraded shares of Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.07.

About Arista Networks

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.