Paragon Advisors LLC Increases Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Paragon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 19.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,740 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,897 shares during the period. Arista Networks accounts for 1.5% of Paragon Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Paragon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $5,600,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the second quarter valued at about $1,228,177,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $833,630,000 after purchasing an additional 5,525,828 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 82.5% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,396,939,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332,659 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter valued at about $247,451,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 14.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,494,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,073,654,000 after buying an additional 1,350,593 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 12.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total value of $1,123,440.00. Following the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. The trade was a 44.98% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 199,632 shares of company stock valued at $26,936,324 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.47.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.1%

ANET stock opened at $134.87 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.47 billion, a PE ratio of 48.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.46. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $164.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $135.83 and a 200 day moving average of $137.14.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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.