Morningstar Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 300.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,152 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 456.6% during the 4th quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,512 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,715,000 after buying an additional 12,725 shares during the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $939,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in Arista Networks by 277.7% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 645,811 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $71,381,000 after acquiring an additional 474,804 shares during the period. Wealth Alliance lifted its position in Arista Networks by 292.0% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 42,492 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after acquiring an additional 31,652 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 424.1% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 203,703 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $22,515,000 after acquiring an additional 164,836 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Trading Down 6.5 %

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

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $113.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’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 value 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 represents a 15.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total value of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,171.04. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 259,944 shares of company stock worth $30,214,186. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.