Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Boosts Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 182,300 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 14,600 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $26,563,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,993,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,127,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,167 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 1.0% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 26,374,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,698,362,000 after purchasing an additional 263,272 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 0.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,576,483 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,606,694,000 after purchasing an additional 128,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter valued at $1,228,177,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,350,593 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE ANET opened at $140.96 on Thursday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $59.43 and a 12 month high of $164.94. The stock has a market cap of $177.51 billion, a PE ratio of 53.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.42. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $132.65 and its 200 day moving average is $136.71.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $159.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $166.00.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total transaction of $3,694,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,598,124.16. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total transaction of $1,123,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,553,548. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.