We recently published a list of Billionaire Steve Cohen’s Top 15 Stock Picks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) stands against other Billionaire Steve Cohen’s top stock picks.
Steve Cohen is one of the most prominent and successful hedge fund managers in the world, known for his extraordinary trading acumen and ability to generate consistent returns. As the founder of Point72 Asset Management, Cohen has built a reputation as a pioneer in the hedge fund industry. He was born in 1956 into a middle-class family. His father worked in the garment industry, while his mother was a piano teacher. Cohen showed an interest in finance early on, even dabbling in poker, which honed his skills in risk-taking and probability analysis. He graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 with a degree in economics. Shortly after, he began his career on Wall Street as a junior trader at Gruntal & Co, where he quickly gained recognition for his ability to generate profits through equities trading.
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In 1992, Cohen founded SAC Capital Advisors with $25 million, including $10 million of his own savings. The hedge fund, named after his initials, focused on long/short equity strategies and became known for its aggressive trading style. Over the years, SAC Capital emerged as one of the most successful hedge funds in history, consistently delivering double-digit returns. At its peak, SAC Capital managed over $16 billion in assets. Cohen reportedly generated annualized returns of approximately 30% for his investors, an extraordinary achievement in the hedge fund industry. Cohen’s trading style emphasized speed, precision, and a deep understanding of market dynamics.
In 2014, Cohen launched Point72 Asset Management, a firm focused on managing his personal fortune and eventually reopening to external investors. Point72 has since grown into a major player in the hedge fund industry. As of the third quarter of 2024, Point72 manages over $39 billion in 13F securities. The firm employs over 1,800 people and operates across multiple global offices. Point72 combines Cohen’s expertise in active trading with investments in technology, data analysis, and artificial intelligence, positioning itself at the forefront of modern finance.
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For this article, we selected stocks by combing through the 13F portfolio of Point72 Asset Management at the end of the third quarter of 2024. These stocks are also popular among other hedge funds. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A technician in a server room managing a large-scale network of computers.
Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70
Point72 Asset Management’s Stake: $337 million
Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments. The following attributes underline the company’s potential as an investment. Firstly, as per the report of the third quarter of 2024, revenue was $1.811 billion, an increase of 7.1% compared to the second quarter of 2024, and an increase of 20% from the third quarter of 2023, and GAAP gross margin was 64.2%, compared to GAAP gross margin of 64.9% in the second quarter of 2024 and 62.4% in the third quarter of 2023. This demonstrates effective cost control and successful product pricing strategies, which are crucial for sustaining profitability as the company expands. Secondly, Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) announced the Arista Etherlink AI platforms, designed to deliver optimal network performance for the most demanding AI workloads, including training and inferencing. Powered by new AI-optimized Arista EOS features, the Arista Etherlink AI portfolio supports AI cluster sizes ranging from thousands to 100,000s of XPUs with highly efficient one and 2-tier network topologies that deliver superior application performance compared to more complex multi-tier networks while offering advanced monitoring capabilities including flow-level visibility.
Overall, ANET ranks 3rd on our list of Billionaire Steve Cohen’s top stock picks. While we acknowledge the potential of ANET as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a stock that is more promising than ANET but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
