Nicolet Advisory Services LLC Buys 2,588 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Nicolet Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 284.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,497 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,588 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,397,833,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 313.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,013,511 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,217,323,000 after purchasing an additional 8,352,816 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,266.72. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $48,840,431. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Down 11.2 %

ANET stock opened at $71.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $89.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.08 and a twelve month high of $133.58. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $95.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $101.39.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued 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 business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.