Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Shares Purchased by Kesler Norman & Wride LLC

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 309.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,452 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 12,430 shares during the quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Caitlin John LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 174.7% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 335.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 248 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% during the fourth quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 264 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ANET. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Erste Group Bank lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET stock opened at $78.35 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $98.81 billion, a PE ratio of 35.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.08 and a 12 month high of $133.58. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.75.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total transaction of $6,788,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Company 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.