Westpac Banking Corp Acquires 19,708 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 99,489 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,708 shares during the period. Arista Networks accounts for approximately 0.9% of Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $14,497,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Interchange Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,731 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,855,000 after purchasing an additional 985 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 4.6% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,087,703 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $304,199,000 after buying an additional 92,324 shares during the period. AlphaCore Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 183.4% in the 3rd quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 2,148 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $313,000 after acquiring an additional 1,390 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 13.4% in the third quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 164,945 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $24,034,000 after purchasing an additional 19,460 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 44.0% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 90,851 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,238,000 after purchasing an additional 27,764 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $132.90 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $167.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.15, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.42. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.44. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group set a $200.00 target price on Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday. Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.88.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.44, for a total transaction of $4,558,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,848,301.44. This represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total transaction of $54,041.32. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,220,283.74. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 194,422 shares of company stock valued at $25,620,741. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Company Profile

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.