Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR)

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports.

ALTR has been the subject of several other reports. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Altair Engineering from $88.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $113.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Altair Engineering from $90.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research cut Altair Engineering from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 3rd. Finally, William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Altair Engineering presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.71.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

ALTR opened at $111.78 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $109.90 and a 200 day moving average of $101.53. 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 stock has a market cap of $9.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 657.53, a PEG ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.42.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Altair Engineering had a net margin of 2.13% and a return on equity of 8.23%. The business had revenue of $192.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.98 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Altair Engineering will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Altair Engineering

In related news, CFO Matthew Charles Brown sold 1,048 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.90, for a total transaction of $114,127.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 55,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,046,019.10. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.69, for a total value of $1,373,970.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 134,045 shares in the company, valued at $14,167,216.05. This represents a 8.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 59,143 shares of company stock valued at $6,265,694. Corporate insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 5.9% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,279 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 572.1% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 289 shares of the software’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Altair Engineering in the third quarter valued at about $208,000. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 8.5% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the software’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 2.5% in the third quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 16,500 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,576,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 63.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.