Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) is Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s 9th Largest Position

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 298.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165,232 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 123,814 shares during the period. Arista Networks comprises 1.6% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $18,263,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth 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 period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,397,833,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Arista Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,237,635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,313,229,000 after acquiring an additional 411,109 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Arista Networks by 293.2% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $746,165,000 after buying an additional 5,034,022 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased 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 during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 138,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,641 shares in the company, valued at $8,697,137.08. The trade was a 59.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.85, for a total value of $6,788,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,013.60. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock valued at $49,112,111. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of ANET opened at $79.11 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.08 and a twelve month high of $133.58. The company has a market cap of $99.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $100.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.68.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on ANET. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup boosted their target price 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, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.00.

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.