LRT Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

LRT Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 5,257 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $766,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,000,830 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,571,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,730 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% in the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 26,374,373 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,698,362,000 after purchasing an additional 263,272 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $1,228,177,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings 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 worth $1,073,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350,593 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,094,255 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,470,834,000 after purchasing an additional 181,813 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $135.37 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $170.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $134.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $137.34. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its 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. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The company’s revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, March 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $170.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.47.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the director directly owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total value of $240,378.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. This trade represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 196,237 shares of company stock worth $25,865,760. 3.54% of the stock is 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.