Altair Engineering’s (ALTR) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $100.00 price target on the software’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Altair Engineering from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Altair Engineering from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $90.00.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

NASDAQ ALTR traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $81.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 424,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 373,848. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 905.22, a P/E/G ratio of 10.90 and a beta of 1.42. Altair Engineering has a 1-year low of $57.59 and a 1-year high of $92.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.16 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The company’s 50-day moving average is $83.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.27.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The software reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.07. Altair Engineering had a return on equity of 5.83% and a net margin of 1.55%. The business had revenue of $171.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $172.48 million. On average, equities analysts predict that Altair Engineering will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.07, for a total value of $910,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 103,591 shares in the company, valued at $9,434,032.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew Charles Brown sold 4,363 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.65, for a total transaction of $364,964.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 48,742 shares in the company, valued at $4,077,268.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.07, for a total value of $910,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 103,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,434,032.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 161,830 shares of company stock worth $13,876,320. Company insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Matrix Capital Management Company LP boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP now owns 12,233,174 shares of the software’s stock worth $1,029,422,000 after buying an additional 932,717 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,761,445 shares of the software’s stock valued at $484,826,000 after acquiring an additional 33,503 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 0.6% in the first quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,440,081 shares of the software’s stock valued at $210,213,000 after acquiring an additional 15,370 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 6.9% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,130,550 shares of the software’s stock valued at $132,570,000 after acquiring an additional 137,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 97.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,182,339 shares of the software’s stock valued at $99,494,000 after acquiring an additional 583,127 shares in the last quarter. 63.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altair Engineering Company Profile

Altair Engineering Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation and design, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Software and Client Engineering Services.