ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) in a research note released on Monday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on ANSS. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of ANSYS from $350.00 to $330.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of ANSYS from $314.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $345.00 price objective on shares of ANSYS in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed a peer perform rating on shares of ANSYS in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $322.75.

ANSYS Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ANSS opened at $325.62 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $337.94 and its 200 day moving average is $319.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a current ratio of 2.30. The company has a market capitalization of $28.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.16. ANSYS has a fifty-two week low of $258.01 and a fifty-two week high of $364.31.

ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The software maker reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.71 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $805.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $797.49 million. ANSYS had a net margin of 22.05% and a return on equity of 11.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.61 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that ANSYS will post 7.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Glenda Dorchak sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.08, for a total transaction of $51,312.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,049 shares in the company, valued at $1,043,001.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ANSYS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANSS. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of ANSYS by 12.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,254 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $716,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of ANSYS by 59.0% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,430 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,407,000 after purchasing an additional 1,643 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its position in shares of ANSYS by 7.3% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 2,323 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $738,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of ANSYS by 3.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 301,397 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $95,742,000 after purchasing an additional 10,284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of ANSYS by 4.5% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 71,045 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $22,567,000 after purchasing an additional 3,063 shares during the last quarter. 92.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ANSYS Company Profile

ANSYS, Inc develops and markets engineering simulation software and services for engineers, designers, researchers, and students in the United States, Japan, Germany, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It offers structural analysis product suite that provides simulation tools for product design and optimization; the Ansys Mechanical product, an element analysis software; LS-DYNA solver for multiphysics simulation; and power analysis and optimization software suite.