Bank of America Boosts Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) Price Target to $260.00

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) had its price objective boosted by Bank of America from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

AZPN has been the subject of several other reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Aspen Technology from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Aspen Technology from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $248.40.

Aspen Technology Price Performance

AZPN opened at $235.56 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $210.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $206.16. Aspen Technology has a 12 month low of $162.26 and a 12 month high of $240.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -535.36, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.75.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.49. The firm had revenue of $342.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $319.10 million. Aspen Technology had a negative net margin of 0.87% and a positive return on equity of 2.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Aspen Technology will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jr. Robert M. Whelan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.10, for a total value of $219,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,871,114. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Aspen Technology

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 313,105 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,931,000 after buying an additional 16,649 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Aspen Technology during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,487,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Aspen Technology by 1,034.4% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 38,445 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,895,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 203.6% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,782,000 after purchasing an additional 5,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 47.7% in the fourth quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 11,117 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,447,000 after purchasing an additional 3,588 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.66% of the company’s stock.

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.