Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,848 Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,848 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 9.4% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,041 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $783,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 10.9% during the third quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,469 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 11.6% during the third quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 906 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 117.9% during the third quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 7,908 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,035,000 after purchasing an additional 4,278 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 14.2% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,652 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,948 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on ANET. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.83.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,405,171.04. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total transaction of $825,300.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 335,832 shares of company stock worth $37,787,297 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $120.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.36 billion, a PE ratio of 57.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.08 and a 12-month high of $133.57.

Arista Networks Profile

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.