Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) Shares Gap Down to $81.75

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) shares gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $81.75, but opened at $78.21. Altair Engineering shares last traded at $80.42, with a volume of 67,879 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on ALTR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Altair Engineering from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Monday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Altair Engineering from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.00.

Altair Engineering Stock Performance

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.72 billion, a PE ratio of -626.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.85 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The software reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.07. Altair Engineering had a positive return on equity of 3.77% and a negative net margin of 1.46%. The company had revenue of $171.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.48 million. Research analysts expect that Altair Engineering Inc. will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Altair Engineering

In other news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.07, for a total value of $910,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 103,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,434,032.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.07, for a total transaction of $910,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 103,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,434,032.37. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CRO Nelson Dias sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.65, for a total transaction of $31,368.75. Following the sale, the executive now owns 33,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,830,548.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 161,830 shares of company stock worth $13,876,320 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALTR. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Altair Engineering during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altair Engineering during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings 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 worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 903 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 10.5% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,991 shares of the software’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Altair Engineering by 31.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the software’s stock valued at $136,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. 63.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.