Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) Sets New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $113.12 and last traded at $110.25, with a volume of 1173095 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $102.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on ALTR shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $113.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Altair Engineering from $88.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Altair Engineering from $90.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Altair Engineering from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.71.

Altair Engineering Stock Down 4.3 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $94.03 and a 200-day moving average of $91.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,155.44, a P/E/G ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 3.14 and a current ratio of 3.14.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. Altair Engineering had a return on equity of 6.89% and a net margin of 4.26%. The company had revenue of $151.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.55 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Altair Engineering Inc. will post 0.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Altair Engineering

In other news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total value of $51,193.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,242 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,753,951.94. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Christ Revocable Trust sold 100,000 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.57, for a total value of $10,657,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 620 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total value of $51,193.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,753,951.94. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 360,360 shares of company stock worth $35,476,660 in the last three months. 21.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altair Engineering

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 572.1% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 289 shares of the software’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 81.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 418 shares of the software’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Altair Engineering by 41.3% during the 2nd quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 832 shares of the software’s stock worth $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% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,057 shares of the software’s stock worth $104,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altair Engineering during the 1st quarter worth about $177,000. 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.