Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 4.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,665,351 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 79,802 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Arista Networks worth $242,658,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,228,177,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $833,630,000 after buying an additional 5,525,828 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 193.3% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,065,054 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $721,342,000 after buying an additional 4,656,021 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth about $247,451,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in Arista Networks by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,494,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,073,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,350,593 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total transaction of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 8,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,052,007. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This trade represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 208,464 shares of company stock worth $26,430,108. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Down 4.3%

NYSE:ANET opened at $141.79 on Monday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $164.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $130.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.47. The company has a market capitalization of $178.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The company’s revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 target price (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Zacks Research downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Profile

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista’s offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista’s product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company’s hardware platforms.