Leuthold Group LLC Buys New Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Leuthold Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 47,191 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,216,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.0% in the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 653 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,917 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,271,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 14,868 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,851 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $711,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Trust Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 6.5% in the third quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 3,141 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,206,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ANET. Barclays increased their price target on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $98.31 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $113.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.57.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $9,248,800.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,500,155.36. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. This trade represents a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 260,056 shares of company stock valued at $30,225,623. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.