Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Reduces Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC decreased its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 48.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,053,103 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 973,915 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned about 0.08% of Arista Networks worth $81,594,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position 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 worth $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 433.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 10,856 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,200,000 after buying an additional 8,822 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 240.4% during the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,989 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 2,817 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Arista Networks by 285.8% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 10,065 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,112,000 after acquiring an additional 7,456 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ANET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Citigroup raised their price target on Arista Networks from $123.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lowered Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.07.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $137.87 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $173.28 billion, a PE ratio of 54.23, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $59.43 and a one year high of $141.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $108.36 and a 200 day moving average of $95.73.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is 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 on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.22, for a total value of $243,175,176.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,698,074 shares in the company, valued at $776,191,640.28. This represents a 23.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 5,767,742 shares of company stock worth $714,048,068 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

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.

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