Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC Purchases 48,068 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 232.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 68,722 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 48,068 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $7,596,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Interval Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 210.3% during the fourth quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 24,210 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 16,408 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 155.8% in the fourth quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 52,087 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,757,000 after purchasing an additional 31,721 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 297,109.3% in the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,462,488 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $382,709,000 after purchasing an additional 3,461,323 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 172.1% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 971,547 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $107,439,000 after purchasing an additional 614,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KKM Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 3,928 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $434,000 after buying an additional 2,946 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total transaction of $620,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 139,784 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,249.20. This trade represents a 5.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 412,355 shares of company stock worth $37,216,079. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $73.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on Arista Networks from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.07.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $86.15 on Monday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $133.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $108.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.81, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $97.29.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 27.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.