Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Increases Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 283.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 224,084 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 165,588 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $24,768,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,313,229,000 after acquiring an additional 411,109 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 293.2% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $746,165,000 after acquiring an additional 5,034,022 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 292.8% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 6,053,181 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $674,627,000 after acquiring an additional 4,512,166 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 4.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,871,481 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,246,705,000 after purchasing an additional 236,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 259.7% in the fourth quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,188,878 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $573,527,000 after purchasing an additional 3,746,407 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ANET. 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 note on Tuesday, December 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 note on Wednesday. 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 note on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $106.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ANET opened at $98.31 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.08 and a 12 month high of $133.57. The stock has a market cap of $123.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $113.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.85.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its 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 return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly 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 at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total transaction of $825,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 260,056 shares of company stock valued at $30,225,623. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.