Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 5,429,857 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 227.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,814,613 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,429,857 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $863,749,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,665,829,000 after purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,397,833,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Trading Down 9.8 %

NYSE:ANET opened at $64.28 on Monday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.80 and a 12 month high of $133.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.37.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup raised their price target on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This trade represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.55, for a total value of $620,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 139,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,840,249.20. This trade represents a 5.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 411,001 shares of company stock worth $39,362,831. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

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.