Vestcor Inc Buys 8,674 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Vestcor Inc raised its Arista stake by 38.9% in Q3, buying 8,674 shares to hold 30,995 shares worth $4.516 million, while other large institutions (e.g., Massachusetts Financial Services and Norges Bank) also made sizable additions, leaving institutional ownership at 82.47%.
• Insiders have been net sellers: directors Yvonne Wassenaar and Charles H. Giancarlo recently sold shares, and insiders disposed of 196,237 shares worth $25.87 million over the past three months, leaving insider ownership at 3.54%.
• Fundamentals and analyst view: Arista topped quarterly estimates (EPS $0.82 vs. $0.75; revenue $2.49B vs. $2.38B, +28.9% YoY) and carries a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating with an average target of $176.88.

Vestcor Inc increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 38.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,995 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,674 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $4,516,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Norges Bank bought a new position in Arista Networks in the second quarter worth about $1,228,177,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $833,630,000 after buying an additional 5,525,828 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $247,451,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,494,124 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,073,654,000 after buying an additional 1,350,593 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 282.9% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,549,486 shares of the technology company's stock worth $158,528,000 after buying an additional 1,144,786 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,574 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,665,300.56. The trade was a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.67, for a total value of $1,029,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $229,547.28. The trade was a 81.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 196,237 shares of company stock valued at $25,865,760 over the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ANET. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $184.00 price target (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $175.00 target price (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $176.88.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $137.14 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $134.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.69, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.46. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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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