Northstar Asset Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Northstar Asset Management Inc. has made a new investment in Arista Networks, acquiring 15,357 shares valued at approximately $1.19 million in the first quarter.
• Various hedge funds have raised their stakes in Arista Networks, with institutional investors owning 82.47% of the company's stock.
• Analysts' ratings are mixed: while Needham & Company LLC upgraded its target price to $155, BNP Paribas downgraded from "outperform" to "neutral," indicating varying outlooks on the stock's performance.

Northstar Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 15,357 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,190,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after purchasing an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $933,626,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 330.8% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,248,169,000 after acquiring an additional 8,671,235 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Arista Networks by 354.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,942,816 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,098,979,000 after acquiring an additional 7,753,991 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.3%

NYSE ANET traded down $1.69 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $131.09. The stock had a trading volume of 7,106,464 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,531,655. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.43 and a 52-week high of $141.99. The company has a market cap of $164.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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 stock repurchase program 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 programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on ANET. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price objective on Arista Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. BNP Paribas cut Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $89.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $138.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the firm'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 value of $243,175,176.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,698,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at $776,191,640.28. This trade represents a 23.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,767,574 shares of company stock valued at $714,032,242. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

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.