Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) Downgraded by The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) from a neutral rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $71.00 price target on the software’s stock, down from their previous price target of $85.00.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on ALTR. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Altair Engineering from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altair Engineering presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $90.67.

Altair Engineering Stock Performance

NASDAQ ALTR opened at $81.56 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $93.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $88.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 906.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a current ratio of 2.46. Altair Engineering has a fifty-two week low of $57.59 and a fifty-two week high of $101.39.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The software reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.01. Altair Engineering had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 4.26%. The company had revenue of $148.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.88 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.15) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Altair Engineering will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Altair Engineering news, CMO Amy Messano sold 19,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.51, for a total transaction of $1,796,804.52. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 18,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,641,941.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CMO Amy Messano sold 19,852 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.51, for a total value of $1,796,804.52. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 18,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,641,941.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Brian Gayle sold 773 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.10, for a total value of $69,647.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 18,423 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,659,912.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 486,134 shares of company stock worth $45,062,853 in the last quarter. 21.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Altair Engineering by 97.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,182,339 shares of the software’s stock worth $99,494,000 after acquiring an additional 583,127 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 5,564.8% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 31,043 shares of the software’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after buying an additional 30,495 shares during the period. Matrix Capital Management Company LP lifted its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP now owns 12,233,174 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,029,422,000 after buying an additional 932,717 shares during the period. Bain Capital Public Equity LP acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,376,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 960.2% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 303,672 shares of the software’s stock valued at $26,161,000 after buying an additional 275,030 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.38% of the company’s stock.

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.