AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Sells 120,311 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lowered its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 17.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 557,099 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 120,311 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $81,175,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its stake in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 141.3% during the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Bare Financial Services Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2,118.2% in the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 979.2% in the third quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 259 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, REAP Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 108.0% during the 2nd quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 337 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.15, for a total value of $49,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,052,007. The trade was a 4.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE ANET opened at $150.31 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.15, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.76. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $183.00 target price (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $164.44.

About Arista Networks

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.