Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,670,000 shares, an increase of 6.6% from the August 15th total of 4,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 630,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ALTR. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Altair Engineering from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $85.00 to $71.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Altair Engineering from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Altair Engineering currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.67.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.73, for a total value of $60,592.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,075,980.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Altair Engineering news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.73, for a total value of $60,592.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,242 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,075,980.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder George J. Christ sold 100,000 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.40, for a total value of $9,840,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 200,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,680,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 153,860 shares of company stock valued at $14,739,205 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 81.7% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 418 shares of the software’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 41.3% during the second quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 832 shares of the software’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 41.7% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,057 shares of the software’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Investment Managers International grew its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 68.7% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Investment Managers International now owns 1,940 shares of the software’s stock valued at $163,000 after buying an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering during the first quarter valued at approximately $177,000. 63.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Altair Engineering Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ALTR opened at $89.01 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 3.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $89.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.34. The stock has a market cap of $7.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 989.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.94 and a beta of 1.45. Altair Engineering has a twelve month low of $57.59 and a twelve month high of $101.39.

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

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.