Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) Receives $219.50 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $219.50.

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. William Blair raised shares of Aspen Technology to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Aspen Technology in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Aspen Technology from $196.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised Aspen Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $185.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, May 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aspen Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AZPN. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Aspen Technology by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 313,105 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,931,000 after acquiring an additional 16,649 shares in the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in Aspen Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $2,957,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Aspen Technology in the 1st quarter worth about $1,487,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Aspen Technology in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,166,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Aspen Technology by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 415,662 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,508,000 after buying an additional 8,856 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.66% of the company’s stock.

Aspen Technology Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of AZPN opened at $182.01 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $198.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $199.73. Aspen Technology has a 12 month low of $162.26 and a 12 month high of $224.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -413.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.73.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.39. Aspen Technology had a positive return on equity of 2.76% and a negative net margin of 2.46%. The company had revenue of $278.11 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $251.65 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Aspen Technology will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aspen Technology Company Profile

Aspen Technology, Inc provides industrial software that focuses on helping customers in asset-intensive industries worldwide. The company's solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation, and maintenance lifecycle. Its software is used in performance engineering, modeling and design, supply chain management, predictive and prescriptive maintenance, digital grid management, and industrial data management.