Nicholas Investment Partners LP Buys Shares of 7,710 Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Nicholas Investment Partners LP acquired a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,710 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $852,000.

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

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,492 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.49, for a total transaction of $102,187.08. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,480 shares in the company, valued at $512,305.20. This represents a 16.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 17,433 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.14, for a total transaction of $1,623,709.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,433 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,623,709.62. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 410,867 shares of company stock valued at $37,056,669. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Erste Group Bank cut Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group raised Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $89.00 price target (up from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $107.14.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE:ANET traded down $1.41 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $95.29. The company had a trading volume of 2,060,934 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,032,624. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $133.58. The business's 50 day moving average price is $80.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.19. The firm has a market cap of $119.68 billion, a PE ratio of 42.95, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Arista Networks

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.