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

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

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Altair Engineering from $88.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Loop Capital reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $113.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Altair Engineering from $90.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Altair Engineering from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Altair Engineering has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.71.

Altair Engineering Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ALTR traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $111.96. 361,027 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 777,520. Altair Engineering has a twelve month low of $75.71 and a twelve month high of $113.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 294.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 3.27 and a quick ratio of 3.27. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $109.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.19.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last released 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 5.10% and a return on equity of 7.49%. The company had revenue of $192.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.98 million. On average, analysts expect that Altair Engineering will post 0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Altair Engineering

In other Altair Engineering news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was 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 owns 134,045 shares in the company, valued at $14,167,216.05. The trade was a 8.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Charles Brown sold 1,048 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.90, for a total value of $114,127.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 55,519 shares in the company, valued at $6,046,019.10. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 59,143 shares of company stock valued at $6,265,694. Company insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ALTR. Creative Planning grew its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 572.1% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 289 shares of the software’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering during the 3rd quarter worth about $208,000. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the software’s stock worth $214,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 16,500 shares of the software’s stock worth $1,576,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 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.