Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,210,000 shares, an increase of 7.4% from the December 31st total of 2,990,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 379,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 8.5 days.
Altair Engineering Stock Performance
Shares of ALTR opened at $87.20 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $78.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.45. Altair Engineering has a 12-month low of $52.16 and a 12-month high of $88.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a PE ratio of -415.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 25.67 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99.
Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The software reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.14. Altair Engineering had a positive return on equity of 1.82% and a negative net margin of 2.75%. The business had revenue of $134.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $127.50 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Altair Engineering will post 0.33 EPS for the current year.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $86.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.86.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, major shareholder Gc Investments Llc sold 14,411 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.05, for a total transaction of $1,038,312.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Altair Engineering news, major shareholder Gc Investments Llc sold 14,411 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.05, for a total value of $1,038,312.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 600 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.65, for a total value of $42,990.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,353,826.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 326,766 shares of company stock valued at $25,514,384 over the last three months. 22.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altair Engineering
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALTR. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 54.5% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,032 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,548,000 after purchasing an additional 8,474 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 47,705 shares of the software’s stock valued at $3,072,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,879,144 shares of the software’s stock valued at $314,217,000 after purchasing an additional 339,610 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 353,243 shares of the software’s stock valued at $22,750,000 after purchasing an additional 10,216 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,645,906 shares of the software’s stock valued at $299,196,000 after purchasing an additional 18,157 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.38% of the company’s stock.
About Altair Engineering
Altair Engineering Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments: Software and Client Engineering Services.