Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC Takes $201,000 Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,816 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in Arista Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,313,229,000 after purchasing an additional 411,109 shares during the last quarter. 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 raised its stake in Arista Networks by 292.8% in the 4th 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 raised its stake in Arista Networks by 4.2% in the 3rd 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, DSM Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 259.7% in the 4th quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,188,878 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $573,527,000 after purchasing an additional 3,746,407 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays raised their target price on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their target price on Arista Networks from $106.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $113.79.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of Arista Networks 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 259,944 shares of company stock worth $30,214,186 in the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $103.82 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $114.08 and a 200 day moving average of $101.54. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.08 and a 12 month high of $133.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

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.