Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Major Shareholder Sells $7,423,911.04 in Stock

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) major shareholder George J. Christ sold 87,217 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.12, for a total transaction of $7,423,911.04. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 100,000 shares in the company, valued at $8,512,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Altair Engineering Stock Up 0.6 %

Altair Engineering stock traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $85.68. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 259,630 shares, compared to its average volume of 414,760. Altair Engineering Inc. has a 52-week low of $57.59 and a 52-week high of $92.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 952.00, a PEG ratio of 10.86 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 2.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.84.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The software reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $172.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.29 million. Altair Engineering had a net margin of 1.55% and a return on equity of 5.60%. Altair Engineering’s revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Altair Engineering Inc. will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altair Engineering

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Matrix Capital Management Company LP increased its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP now owns 12,233,174 shares of the software’s stock worth $1,029,422,000 after acquiring an additional 932,717 shares during the period. Bain Capital Public Equity Management II LLC acquired a new stake in Altair Engineering during the 4th quarter worth about $57,728,000. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in shares of Altair Engineering during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,487,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 95.7% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 392,414 shares of the software’s stock valued at $24,549,000 after buying an additional 191,866 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altair Engineering by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,727,942 shares of the software’s stock valued at $358,340,000 after purchasing an additional 179,838 shares during the period. 63.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ALTR shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Altair Engineering from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $88.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Altair Engineering from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.60.

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.