Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 1,421,575 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 619.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,651,188 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,421,575 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $182,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ANET. 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,397,833,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 313.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,013,511 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,217,323,000 after acquiring an additional 8,352,816 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET stock opened at $64.28 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.08 and a 1 year high of $133.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50-day moving average is $94.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.21.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted 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 reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment 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, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total value of $896,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 155,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. This represents a 4.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $48,840,431. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.