Sanders Morris Harris LLC Makes New Investment in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Sanders Morris Harris LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 30,400 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $2,386,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 304.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 5.3%

Shares of ANET traded up $4.76 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $94.54. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,106,740 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,043,540. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.56. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $133.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company's revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This trade represents a 86.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.58, for a total value of $708,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 131,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,673,426.72. This trade represents a 5.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 177,690 shares of company stock valued at $15,442,765 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $112.00 price target for the company. Wedbush began coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, KGI Securities cut Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Five 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 stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $107.47.

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.