Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) Cut to “Hold” at Baird R W

Baird R W downgraded shares of Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

SNPS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Synopsys from $630.00 to $550.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Synopsys from $660.00 to $590.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Synopsys from $700.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $605.00 target price (down from $650.00) on shares of Synopsys in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Synopsys from $650.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Synopsys has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $585.33.

Synopsys Price Performance

NASDAQ SNPS opened at $425.45 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 6.85, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Synopsys has a 12-month low of $365.74 and a 12-month high of $651.73. The company has a market capitalization of $79.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $590.39 and its 200-day moving average is $506.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Synopsys

In other Synopsys news, CEO Sassine Ghazi sold 11,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.01, for a total value of $6,694,687.66. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 71,615 shares in the company, valued at $42,181,951.15. The trade was a 13.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Shelagh Glaser sold 3,655 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.77, for a total transaction of $2,228,709.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,317 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,339,847.09. This represents a 19.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,031 shares of company stock worth $13,168,999 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Synopsys

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SNPS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Synopsys in the second quarter valued at about $647,964,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Synopsys by 54,286.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,196,492 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $513,116,000 after acquiring an additional 1,194,292 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Synopsys in the first quarter valued at about $341,480,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its position in shares of Synopsys by 38.3% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,432,596 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,043,518,000 after acquiring an additional 673,837 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Synopsys by 29.1% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,598,874 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,333,095,000 after acquiring an additional 585,494 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.47% of the company’s stock.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc provides electronic design automation software products used to design and test integrated circuits. It operates in three segments: Design Automation, Design IP, and Software Integrity. The company offers Digital and Custom IC Design solution that provides digital design implementation solutions; Verification solution that offers virtual prototyping, static and formal verification, simulation, emulation, field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based prototyping, and debug solutions; and FPGA design products that are programmed to perform specific functions.