Argus Investors Counsel Inc. Grows Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Argus Investors Counsel Inc. boosted its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 212.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,425 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,329 shares during the quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $160,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Intellectus Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the third quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 4.3% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $262,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,250,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 28.2% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total value of $896,160.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 155,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. The trade was a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 71,036 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.06, for a total value of $7,107,506.98. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,076,289.82. The trade was a 50.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 255,832 shares of company stock worth $28,538,497. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8 %

NYSE ANET opened at $115.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $145.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.49, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.08 and a 12 month high of $133.57. The company’s 50 day moving average is $112.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $99.36.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.83.

About Arista Networks

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.