GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Grows Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 291.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,328 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 989 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $147,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its position in Arista Networks by 6.9% in the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $160,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. First Affirmative Financial Network increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,250,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, HM Payson & Co. lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 28.2% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.8 %

ANET stock opened at $118.52 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $112.87 and its 200 day moving average is $99.58. The stock has a market cap of $149.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.08 and a 1-year high of $133.57.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.29% and a return on equity of 30.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total value of $9,477,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total transaction of $825,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 42,946 shares in the company, valued at $17,721,666.90. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 255,832 shares of company stock valued at $28,538,497 over the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ANET. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $105.25 price target (up from $86.25) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.83.

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.