Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Acquires 189,420 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 189,420 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,426,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Main Street Group LTD bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth $26,000. William Mack & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at $27,000. ABS Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 37.2% in the first quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 247 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 573,509 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total value of $119,364,428.17. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,203,250. This represents a 95.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total transaction of $59,685,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 180,543,048 shares in the company, valued at $35,919,039,399.60. This represents a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,487,846 shares of company stock worth $503,417,253. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.3%

NYSE:ANET opened at $169.58 on Wednesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.52 and a 12-month high of $217.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.12. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.65% and a net margin of 38.37%. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 58.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $289.00 target price (up from $195.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $250.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, August 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $220.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $232.95.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Arista Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter earnings were $1.20 per share versus the $1.08 consensus, while revenue of $3.66 billion exceeded the $3.33 billion estimate and rose 58.5% year over year. The company said revenue growth was its strongest since its IPO, and operating margin widened. Article: Arista Networks Q3 Earnings and Revenues Beat Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management’s fourth-quarter outlook was characterized as strong, supporting expectations for continued demand for Arista’s networking products amid AI and data-center expansion. Article: Arista Networks Stock Pops on Q3 Earnings Beat, Strong Q4 Guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Gross margin slipped as product sales made up a larger share of revenue, and coverage flagged a slower pace of growth in the fourth-quarter outlook. These trends could raise questions about the durability of margin gains and rapid growth. Article: Arista Revenue Up 58% as Q4 Outlook Slows

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc develops and sells cloud networking solutions for data centers, cloud service providers, enterprises and specialized computing environments. The company’s products are designed to support high-performance, scalable and automated networks used for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics and other demanding applications.

Arista’s portfolio includes data center and campus switches, routing platforms, wireless networking products, network operating software and network management tools.