Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Purchases 40,450 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 272.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,304 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 40,450 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $6,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Arista Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,313,229,000 after acquiring an additional 411,109 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 293.2% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $746,165,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,022 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 320.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,457,263 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $713,721,000 after buying an additional 4,919,882 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 196.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,342,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $732,493,000 after buying an additional 4,201,973 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Arista Networks by 294.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,136,864 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $678,308,000 after buying an additional 4,579,622 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total value of $12,988,391.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total value of $892,080.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 163,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,263,553.84. This trade represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ANET opened at $84.38 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $103.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.77. The company has a market cap of $106.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.08 and a twelve month high of $133.58.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ANET. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

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.