Rafferty Asset Management LLC Acquires 311,430 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 309.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 412,002 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 311,430 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $45,539,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after purchasing an additional 20,059,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $97.86 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.25. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The company has a market capitalization of $122.90 billion, a PE ratio of 44.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. This represents a 15.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 412,355 shares of company stock valued at $37,216,079 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on ANET. Barclays dropped their price target on Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KGI Securities lowered Arista Networks to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company 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 MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.