Norges Bank Invests $37.90 Million in Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR)

Norges Bank bought a new stake in Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 347,348 shares of the software’s stock, valued at approximately $37,899,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Altair Engineering in the 4th quarter valued at $7,076,000. Mint Tower Capital Management B.V. acquired a new position in Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter worth about $546,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Altair Engineering by 460.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,243 shares of the software’s stock worth $685,000 after purchasing an additional 5,129 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Altair Engineering by 4.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,342,000. 63.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ALTR opened at $111.85 on Friday. Altair Engineering Inc. has a 12-month low of $75.71 and a 12-month high of $113.12. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.36. The company has a market cap of $9.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 657.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.45.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The software reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $192.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.98 million. Altair Engineering had a return on equity of 8.08% and a net margin of 2.13%. On average, equities analysts expect that Altair Engineering Inc. will post 0.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Altair Engineering

In related news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.61, for a total value of $301,347.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,542 shares in the company, valued at $2,069,472.62. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CRO Nelson Dias sold 1,671 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.30, for a total transaction of $185,982.30. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 55,411 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,167,244.30. This represents a 2.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,172 shares of company stock worth $1,356,847. Company insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ALTR. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Monday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.83.

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.