Alpine Associates Management Inc. Purchases New Shares in Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Alpine Associates Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 59,700 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,903,000. Alpine Associates Management Inc. owned about 0.09% of Aspen Technology at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 37,990.7% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 634,210 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $158,318,000 after acquiring an additional 632,545 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Aspen Technology during the fourth quarter worth $66,680,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 89.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 363,449 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,799,000 after buying an additional 171,351 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Aspen Technology by 345.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 142,897 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,874,000 after purchasing an additional 110,838 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Aspen Technology by 116.9% in the third quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 195,271 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,635,000 after purchasing an additional 105,254 shares in the last quarter. 45.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AZPN. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Aspen Technology from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price (down from $275.00) on shares of Aspen Technology in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Aspen Technology in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Baird R W lowered Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Loop Capital raised Aspen Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $265.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aspen Technology has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.00.

Aspen Technology Trading Up 0.1 %

Aspen Technology stock opened at $265.25 on Friday. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a 12 month low of $171.25 and a 12 month high of $277.37. The firm has a market cap of $16.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3,316.04, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $259.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $246.24.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.03. Aspen Technology had a return on equity of 3.17% and a net margin of 0.54%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.7 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.