First Foundation Advisors Acquires 31,197 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

First Foundation Advisors boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 355.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 39,964 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 31,197 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in Arista Networks were worth $4,417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,397,833,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET opened at $72.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $90.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.45. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $133.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $9,248,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,500,155.36. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 139,784 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 411,031 shares of company stock worth $39,364,943. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $108.00 to $76.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Arista Networks from $118.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.50.

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.