Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Shares of Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) have been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and seven have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $100.83.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ALTR shares. Wolfe Research lowered Altair Engineering from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 3rd. Loop Capital reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $113.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Monday. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

Altair Engineering Stock Performance

ALTR stock opened at $111.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 655.82, a P/E/G ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $110.29 and its 200 day moving average is $102.10. Altair Engineering has a 52 week low of $75.71 and a 52 week high of $113.12.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The software reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $192.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.98 million. Altair Engineering had a net margin of 2.13% and a return on equity of 8.08%. As a group, analysts forecast that Altair Engineering will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Altair Engineering news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 16,095 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.65, for a total value of $1,700,436.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 117,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,461,417.50. This trade represents a 12.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 2,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.61, for a total value of $301,347.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,069,472.62. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,019 shares of company stock worth $5,027,600 in the last three months. Insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Altair Engineering

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NBT Bank N A NY lifted its position in Altair Engineering by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 247 shares of the software’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 572.1% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 289 shares of the software’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 77.0% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 285 shares of the software’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 729 shares of the software’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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 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.