Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $100.00 price objective on the software’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on ALTR. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Altair Engineering from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $88.00 target price (up from $74.00) on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. They issued an overweight rating and a $86.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $88.71.

Altair Engineering Stock Up 1.3 %

ALTR stock opened at $86.27 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.82. The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -663.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.16 and a quick ratio of 2.16. Altair Engineering has a 12 month low of $57.59 and a 12 month high of $92.92.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The software reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $171.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.48 million. Altair Engineering had a negative net margin of 1.46% and a positive return on equity of 3.77%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Altair Engineering will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Altair Engineering news, major shareholder Jrs Investments Llc sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.73, for a total transaction of $418,650.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, major shareholder George J. Christ sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total value of $8,732,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Jrs Investments Llc sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.73, for a total transaction of $418,650.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 176,187 shares of company stock worth $15,215,227. Company insiders own 22.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altair Engineering

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALTR. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 48.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 938 shares of the software’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 1,157.7% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 981 shares of the software’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 17.2% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,481 shares of the software’s stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. 63.38% of the stock is currently 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.