Pathstone Holdings LLC Acquires 75,459 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 293.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 101,156 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 75,459 shares during the quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $11,197,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position 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 increased its position in shares of 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 increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE ANET traded up $0.29 during trading on Monday, reaching $96.71. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,158,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,059,766. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.46 billion, a PE ratio of 43.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $80.29 and a 200 day moving average of $97.20. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $59.43 and a one year high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. 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 has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at $8,697,137.08. This trade represents a 59.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 17,433 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.14, for a total value of $1,623,709.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 410,867 shares of company stock worth $37,056,669. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ANET. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $107.14.

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.