Alcosta Capital Management Inc. Acquires 43,948 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Alcosta Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 301.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 58,542 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,948 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks makes up 3.8% of Alcosta Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Alcosta Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $6,471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Waterloo Capital L.P. bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $287,000. Titleist Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $319,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 300.1% in the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 58,048 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,415,000 after acquiring an additional 43,538 shares during the last quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 378.6% during the 4th quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 21,589 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,386,000 after purchasing an additional 17,078 shares during the period. Finally, MIG Capital LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $340,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $48,840,431 in the last three months. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group raised Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup lifted 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, February 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET opened at $64.28 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $94.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $101.29. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.07 billion, a PE ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS 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.