12,646,642 Shares in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Acquired by Norges Bank

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 12,646,642 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,397,833,000. Norges Bank owned 1.00% of Arista Networks as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,313,229,000 after acquiring an additional 411,109 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 293.2% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $746,165,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,022 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 320.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,457,263 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $713,721,000 after purchasing an additional 4,919,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in Arista Networks by 196.3% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,342,064 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $732,493,000 after purchasing an additional 4,201,973 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. The trade was a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.51, for a total value of $892,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 163,784 shares in the company, 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 three months, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $81.70 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $100.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.84. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $60.08 and a one year high of $133.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a PE ratio of 36.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted 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. The firm 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 fiscal year.

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.