AIA Group Ltd Acquires New Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

AIA Group Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 15,188 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,577,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,898,836 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,131,433,000 after purchasing an additional 84,212 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,897,906,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,864 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Arista Networks by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,991,923 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,677,231,000 after acquiring an additional 313,036 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Arista Networks by 162.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,549,335 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $673,412,000 after acquiring an additional 3,432,952 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,112,297 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $856,254,000 after acquiring an additional 91,829 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET traded down $1.56 on Thursday, hitting $257.71. The company had a trading volume of 1,525,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,444,839. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $281.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $244.06. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.68 and a 1-year high of $307.74. The stock has a market cap of $80.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 35.62%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ANET. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $254.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Melius raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $230.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, April 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.59.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 186 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total transaction of $48,622.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,678 shares in the company, valued at $700,055.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 186 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total transaction of $48,622.26. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,678 shares in the company, valued at $700,055.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.05, for a total value of $5,801,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at $940,922.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 342,415 shares of company stock worth $98,017,152 over the last three months. 18.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.