Royal Bank of Canada Purchases 3,345,555 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 240.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,736,301 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 3,345,555 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.38% of Arista Networks worth $523,502,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $328,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 133.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 331,872 shares of the technology company's stock worth $36,682,000 after purchasing an additional 189,754 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 648.0% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 748 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 372 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 361.6% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 6,781 shares of the technology company's stock worth $750,000 after acquiring an additional 5,312 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $89.00 price objective (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $107.14.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.1%

ANET traded down $1.10 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $95.60. 5,878,706 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,061,097. The stock has a market cap of $120.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.06, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $80.62 and a 200 day moving average of $97.19. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast 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 initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.03, for a total transaction of $712,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 147,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,157,209.52. This represents a 5.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 410,867 shares of company stock valued at $37,056,669. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.