LRI Investments LLC Buys Shares of 1,151 Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,151 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $357,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 193,482 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,567,000 after purchasing an additional 35,092 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 112.6% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 46,008 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,835,000 after acquiring an additional 24,366 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 25.7% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 29,776 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,087 shares in the last quarter. IFG Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $353,000. Finally, Great Lakes Retirement Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 9,263 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,182,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE:ANET traded up $5.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $319.21. The stock had a trading volume of 2,351,934 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,894,565. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $149.10 and a one year high of $376.50. The company has a market capitalization of $100.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.46, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $330.65 and a 200 day moving average of $295.33.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.24. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.12% and a net margin of 37.64%. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.55 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.20 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John F. Mccool sold 416 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total transaction of $105,888.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.70, for a total value of $7,414,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,550.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 416 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.54, for a total value of $105,888.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 210,076 shares of company stock worth $68,928,479 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ANET. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $325.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, April 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $340.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.12.

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.