CSM Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

CSM Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 11,841 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,726,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Global Trust Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 33.0% in the third quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,808,000 after purchasing an additional 4,780 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $8,263,000. National Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,296,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after buying an additional 1,136,167 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $247,451,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group set a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $184.00 price objective (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET opened at $135.37 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $164.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $134.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.34. The company has a market cap of $170.09 billion, a PE ratio of 49.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.46.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total transaction of $1,123,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total value of $240,378.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,574 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. This represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 196,237 shares of company stock worth $25,865,760. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.