New York State Common Retirement Fund Grows Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 295.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,352,863 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,011,004 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.11% of Arista Networks worth $149,532,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Arista Networks by 293.2% in the 4th 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 grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $674,627,000 after buying an additional 4,512,166 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 307.7% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,632,730 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $512,056,000 after buying an additional 3,496,497 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 306.9% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,433,425 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $268,966,000 after buying an additional 1,835,421 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 322.9% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,323,157 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $259,557,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,777 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. This trade represents a 15.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 6,340 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.58, for a total value of $625,013.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,391.76. The trade was a 95.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 337,320 shares of company stock valued at $37,946,706. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of ANET stock opened at $111.05 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $139.89 billion, a PE ratio of 53.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $113.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.32. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.08 and a 52 week high of $133.57.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. Equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group raised their price target on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.59.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.