Pitcairn Co. Purchases 2,499 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Pitcairn Co. raised its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 258.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,465 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,499 shares during the quarter. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after acquiring an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,397,833,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 313.9% in 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 buying an additional 8,352,816 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ANET. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total value of $896,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 155,784 shares in the company, valued at $17,450,923.68. The trade was a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $48,840,431. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 9.8 %

Shares of ANET opened at $64.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $81.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.96, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $94.01 and a 200 day moving average of $101.29.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

About Arista Networks

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.