California Public Employees Retirement System Acquires 56,467 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,143,649 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 56,467 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $219,317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ANET. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the first quarter worth about $933,626,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,228,177,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Arista Networks by 153.8% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,719,809 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $584,119,000 after buying an additional 4,678,372 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Arista Networks by 193.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,065,054 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $721,342,000 after acquiring an additional 4,656,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 35.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 8,582,109 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $611,852,000 after acquiring an additional 2,240,045 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $128.54 on Monday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $164.94. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $140.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $125.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, November 24th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Arista Networks from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Melius Research increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.31.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.61, for a total value of $3,343,860.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 542,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,758,064. The trade was a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.09, for a total value of $1,024,720.00. Following the sale, the director owned 25,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,302,672.56. This represents a 23.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 1,522,152 shares of company stock valued at $223,569,587 in the last ninety days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.