KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Takes Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 492,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,381,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 5.6% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth $1,417,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Arista Networks by 20.7% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 963 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its position in Arista Networks by 67.3% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 2,920 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Arista Networks by 2.0% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 250,416 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $96,114,000 after acquiring an additional 4,952 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Erste Group Bank cut Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $83.26 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.60. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The company has a market capitalization of $104.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % 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. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.