Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 318 Shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,135 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Aspen Technology were worth $749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Aspen Technology by 1.6% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,090,314 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $812,459,000 after purchasing an additional 65,143 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Aspen Technology by 38.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 553,862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,014,000 after buying an additional 153,897 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 26.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 524,604 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,199,000 after acquiring an additional 109,783 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in Aspen Technology by 3.8% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 340,166 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $67,567,000 after acquiring an additional 12,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Aspen Technology by 52.9% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 293,778 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,657,000 after acquiring an additional 101,586 shares in the last quarter. 45.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aspen Technology

In other news, Director Jr. Robert M. Whelan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.10, for a total transaction of $219,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,871,114. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AZPN shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on Aspen Technology from $225.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Aspen Technology from $204.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Aspen Technology from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $253.00.

Aspen Technology Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ AZPN opened at $241.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $15.24 billion, a PE ratio of -1,506.16, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.76. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a 12 month low of $162.26 and a 12 month high of $248.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $233.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $213.24.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.54). The company had revenue of $215.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $265.04 million. Aspen Technology had a positive return on equity of 2.96% and a negative net margin of 0.87%. The business’s revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

About Aspen Technology

Aspen Technology, Inc provides industrial software that focuses on helping customers in asset-intensive industries worldwide. The company’s solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation, and maintenance lifecycle. Its software is used in performance engineering, modeling and design, supply chain management, predictive and prescriptive maintenance, digital grid management, and industrial data management.