Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Increases Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its stake in Arista Networks by 8.9%, owning 198,550 shares worth about $26.02 million at the end of the quarter.
• Arista reported a strong quarter — $0.82 EPS vs. $0.75 expected and $2.49 billion revenue (up 28.9% YoY) — and analysts predominantly rate the stock a Buy with a consensus target near $178.67.
• CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares for roughly $75.94 million under a Rule 10b5‑1 plan, and insiders have sold about 1.49 million shares (~$245.3 million) over the past three months.

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 8.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 198,550 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 16,250 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $26,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 141.3% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE:ANET opened at $172.76 on Monday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $82.80 and a 52 week high of $179.80. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $141.84 and a 200 day moving average of $137.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.59, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.67.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $178.67.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at $924,321,690.08. This represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,395 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.07, for a total transaction of $213,532.65. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,497,636.88. The trade was a 12.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,494,729 shares of company stock valued at $245,304,519. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista's offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista's product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company's hardware platforms.

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