Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 224,873 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 13.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,873,102 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 224,873 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned 0.15% of Arista Networks worth $145,128,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ANET. Clearstead Trust LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.1% in the first quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 2,455 shares of the technology company's stock worth $190,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Pier 88 Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.5% in the first quarter. Pier 88 Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,960 shares of the technology company's stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 31.3% in the first quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 525 shares of the technology company's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. PFG Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2.7% in the first quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 5,061 shares of the technology company's stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 9.4% in the first quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,624 shares of the technology company's stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on ANET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price objective on Arista Networks and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. KGI Securities downgraded Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $138.07.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE ANET opened at $139.26 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $141.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.90 billion, a PE ratio of 54.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.37. The stock's 50 day moving average is $104.55 and its 200 day moving average is $95.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 864 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.68, for a total value of $99,083.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,460 shares in the company, valued at $855,512.80. The trade was a 10.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 880,180 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.79, for a total transaction of $109,837,662.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,944,405 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $741,802,299.95. The trade was a 12.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,443,742 shares of company stock valued at $395,523,885. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Company 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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