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

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on ALTR. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $113.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research downgraded Altair Engineering from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Altair Engineering from $88.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Altair Engineering from $90.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Altair Engineering presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.71.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

Shares of ALTR opened at $111.78 on Friday. Altair Engineering has a 52 week low of $75.71 and a 52 week high of $113.12. The company has a quick ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 3.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a market capitalization of $9.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 657.53, a PEG ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $109.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.53.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The software reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.15). Altair Engineering had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 2.13%. The company had revenue of $192.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.98 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Altair Engineering will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Matthew Charles Brown sold 1,048 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.90, for a total value of $114,127.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 55,519 shares in the company, valued at $6,046,019.10. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Jrs Investments Llc sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.69, for a total value of $686,985.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 59,143 shares of company stock worth $6,265,694 over the last quarter. 21.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altair Engineering

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALTR. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,142,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,899,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 13,097.8% in the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 331,528 shares of the software’s stock valued at $36,173,000 after purchasing an additional 329,016 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,894,230 shares of the software’s stock valued at $752,229,000 after purchasing an additional 317,575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Woodline Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,733,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.38% of the company’s stock.

About Altair Engineering

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.