Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,550,000 shares, a decrease of 7.3% from the September 30th total of 4,910,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 409,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 11.1 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total value of $51,193.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,753,951.94. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, major shareholder George J. Christ sold 2,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.31, for a total transaction of $207,394.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 300,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,593,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total transaction of $51,193.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,753,951.94. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 360,360 shares of company stock worth $35,476,660 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altair Engineering

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Altair Engineering during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $91,589,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 121.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 569,109 shares of the software’s stock worth $55,818,000 after acquiring an additional 312,448 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in Altair Engineering by 960.2% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 303,672 shares of the software’s stock valued at $26,161,000 after acquiring an additional 275,030 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP grew its stake in Altair Engineering by 1.6% during the first quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP now owns 12,430,000 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,070,844,000 after acquiring an additional 196,826 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Altair Engineering by 772.7% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 212,560 shares of the software’s stock valued at $20,848,000 after acquiring an additional 188,203 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ALTR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Altair Engineering from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Altair Engineering from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.67.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

NASDAQ ALTR opened at $110.67 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 3.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Altair Engineering has a 12 month low of $57.59 and a 12 month high of $113.12. The stock has a market cap of $9.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,229.67, a PEG ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 1.45. The company’s 50 day moving average is $93.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $91.17.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The software reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.01. Altair Engineering had a net margin of 4.26% and a return on equity of 6.89%. The company had revenue of $148.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.88 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.15) EPS. Altair Engineering’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Altair Engineering will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current year.

About Altair Engineering

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.