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

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR – Get Rating) saw a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,180,000 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the December 15th total of 2,050,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 355,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Altair Engineering from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 24th. Needham & Company LLC began coverage on Altair Engineering in a report on Wednesday, November 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altair Engineering currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 57,915 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.97, for a total transaction of $2,894,012.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 103,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,158,103.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Altair Engineering news, major shareholder Jrs Investments Llc sold 15,000 shares of Altair Engineering stock in a transaction on Monday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.45, for a total transaction of $726,750.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Ralph Scapa sold 57,915 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.97, for a total transaction of $2,894,012.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 103,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,158,103.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 162,278 shares of company stock worth $8,017,118 in the last three months. 22.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altair Engineering

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Altair Engineering by 750.8% in the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 553 shares of the software’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Ellevest Inc. boosted its holdings in Altair Engineering by 182.3% in the second quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 573 shares of the software’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Altair Engineering in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Castle Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Altair Engineering during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Altair Engineering by 15.7% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,140 shares of the software’s stock valued at $112,000 after buying an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.66% of the company’s stock.

Altair Engineering Stock Down 2.1 %

Altair Engineering stock opened at $52.42 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $47.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.39. The company has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a PE ratio of -70.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 61.82 and a beta of 1.47. Altair Engineering has a 1-year low of $43.17 and a 1-year high of $68.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The software reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $119.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.47 million. Altair Engineering had a negative return on equity of 0.13% and a negative net margin of 10.30%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Altair Engineering will post 0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altair Engineering Company Profile

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Altair Engineering, Inc engages in the provision of software and cloud solutions for product design & development, high performance cloud computing, and data intelligence. It operates through the following segments: Software and Client Engineering Services. The Software segment includes a portfolio of software products, as well as solvers and optimization technology products, modelling and visualization tools.