Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Takes $8.26 Million Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 56,711 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,263,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,000 after acquiring an additional 5,955 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 48.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after buying an additional 3,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $212,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of ANET opened at $127.26 on Thursday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.43 and a 52-week high of $164.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $128.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.26 billion, a PE ratio of 48.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $164.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total transaction of $1,070,320.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at $2,379,321.36. This trade represents a 31.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 160,464 shares of company stock worth $20,494,988 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

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.