Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Acquires 34,185 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. by 85.2% in Q1, owning 74,316 shares valued at approximately $5.76 million.
• Insider trading saw significant activity with CEO Jayshree Ullal selling 192,979 shares for around $26.95 million, while director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 864 shares worth nearly $99,000.
• Arista Networks reported a 30.4% year-over-year revenue increase for the last quarter, achieving $2.20 billion, and exceeded EPS estimates with $0.73 per share.

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 85.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,316 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 34,185 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $5,758,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $5,984,000. Ibex Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 14.4% during the first quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 58,093 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,501,000 after buying an additional 7,329 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $629,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 19.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 613,309 shares of the technology company's stock worth $47,519,000 after acquiring an additional 101,162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $15,227,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of ANET traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $136.89. 2,780,251 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,545,429. The company has a market cap of $172.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $141.99. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $109.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.99.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.01, for a total transaction of $936,080.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 57,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,761,305.84. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 192,979 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.67, for a total value of $26,953,376.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,623,721 shares of the company's stock, valued at $785,465,112.07. This represents a 3.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,767,742 shares of company stock valued at $714,048,068. Insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ANET shares. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $151.00 price target (up previously from $119.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price objective on Arista Networks and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $89.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $138.07.

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.