Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Grows Position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 272.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 55,304 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying 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 quarter.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.88, for a total transaction of $12,988,391.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 92,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,697,137.08. This represents a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 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. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $84.38 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $103.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.77. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.08 and a 1 year high of $133.58. The stock has a market cap of $106.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.01, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.72% and a return on equity of 29.91%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

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.