First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 4,354,298 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 381.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,494,674 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,354,298 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks accounts for 0.5% of First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $607,326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caitlin John LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% during the fourth quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 335.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. New Millennium Group LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Arista Networks from $108.00 to $76.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.07.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $71.11 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $84.23 and its 200 day moving average is $99.27. The stock has a market cap of $89.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This trade represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the company’s 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. Insiders sold 411,031 shares of company stock valued at $39,364,943 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.