Essex Investment Management Co. LLC Reduces Stake in Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR)

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC reduced its stake in Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) by 58.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 312 shares of the software’s stock after selling 434 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Altair Engineering were worth $34,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Altair Engineering by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,053,957 shares of the software’s stock valued at $196,173,000 after buying an additional 65,589 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,423,880 shares of the software’s stock valued at $136,020,000 after purchasing an additional 53,088 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 505,470 shares of the software’s stock valued at $48,277,000 after purchasing an additional 42,592 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 27.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 401,612 shares of the software’s stock valued at $38,358,000 after purchasing an additional 85,303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 31.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 392,343 shares of the software’s stock valued at $37,473,000 after purchasing an additional 94,219 shares during the last quarter. 63.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altair Engineering Trading Down 0.1 %

ALTR opened at $111.09 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $110.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $103.35. Altair Engineering Inc. has a 12-month low of $75.71 and a 12-month high of $113.12. The firm has a market cap of $9.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 653.47, a PEG ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.45.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $113.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Teresa A. Harris sold 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.61, for a total transaction of $301,347.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,069,472.62. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Matthew Charles Brown sold 1,048 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.90, for a total value of $114,127.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 55,519 shares in the company, valued at $6,046,019.10. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,805 shares of company stock valued at $1,202,184. Corporate insiders own 21.75% of the company’s stock.

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.