Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Shares Purchased by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp grew its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 300.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,520 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,890 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,313,229,000 after buying an additional 411,109 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Arista Networks by 293.2% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $746,165,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,022 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 292.8% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 6,053,181 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $674,627,000 after purchasing an additional 4,512,166 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 4.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,871,481 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,246,705,000 after purchasing an additional 236,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 307.7% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,632,730 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $512,056,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,497 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.59.

Arista Networks Stock Down 2.8 %

ANET stock opened at $106.64 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $113.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.72. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.08 and a 12-month high of $133.57. The company has a market cap of $134.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.27, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total transaction of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total value of $825,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 42,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,721,666.90. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 335,832 shares of company stock worth $37,787,297. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.