Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Acquires 1,587 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 314.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,091 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,587 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 293.2% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $746,165,000 after buying an additional 5,034,022 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 320.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,457,263 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $713,721,000 after buying an additional 4,919,882 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 294.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,136,864 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $678,308,000 after buying an additional 4,579,622 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 worth $674,627,000 after buying an additional 4,512,166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of 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 worth $573,527,000 after buying an additional 3,746,407 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET stock opened at $83.31 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $108.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $102.08. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.08 and a 12 month high of $133.57. The company has a market capitalization of $105.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ANET. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,266.72. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 411,289 shares of company stock worth $42,355,417. Company 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.