Meritage Portfolio Management Acquires 3,170 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Meritage Portfolio Management lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 49,175 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,170 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks makes up 0.8% of Meritage Portfolio Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $11,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ANET. AXQ Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter worth about $791,000. Advisor Resource Council lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 507.9% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 7,021 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,653,000 after acquiring an additional 5,866 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 4,445 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,024,220 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $716,649,000 after purchasing an additional 16,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 62.7% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 113,851 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,813,000 after purchasing an additional 43,889 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET stock traded up $0.88 on Friday, reaching $265.64. 1,722,814 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,472,747. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $279.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $246.38. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $131.68 and a one year high of $307.74. The company has a market cap of $83.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 980 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.29, for a total transaction of $262,924.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,598,852.79. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $922,301.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.29, for a total transaction of $262,924.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 73,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,598,852.79. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 333,494 shares of company stock worth $95,632,321 in the last three months. Insiders own 18.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ANET shares. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $232.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $230.00 to $272.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, April 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.59.

Arista Networks 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.