Mizuho Securities USA LLC Increases Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 486.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 97,905 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 81,201 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $10,821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ANET. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 61,991 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,793,000 after purchasing an additional 3,273 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,417,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 20.7% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 963 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 67.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,920 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 250,416 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $96,114,000 after buying an additional 4,952 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $83.26 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.08 and a 1 year high of $133.58. The stock has a market cap of $104.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $102.53 and a 200 day moving average of $101.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on ANET. 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 research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total value of $6,788,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total transaction of $892,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 163,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,263,553.84. This trade represents a 4.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.