Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. Invests $1.84 Million in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,810 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,839,000. Arista Networks comprises 1.9% of Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 135.9% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 34,026 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,729,000 after buying an additional 19,602 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,261,171 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $175,274,000 after buying an additional 19,738 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the first quarter valued at $676,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $224,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,268,588 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,511,828,000 after purchasing an additional 353,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $230.00 to $272.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.59.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock traded down $6.16 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $251.03. 810,876 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,428,758. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $281.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $244.15. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.68 and a 1-year high of $307.74. The firm has a market cap of $78.48 billion, a PE ratio of 39.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total transaction of $57,184.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $721,704.83. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 224 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.29, for a total transaction of $57,184.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $721,704.83. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 11,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.28, for a total transaction of $3,335,162.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 342,229 shares of company stock worth $97,968,530. Company insiders own 18.99% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks 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.