Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) Hits New 12-Month High Following Analyst Upgrade

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Loop Capital raised their price target on the stock from $204.00 to $260.00. Loop Capital currently has a buy rating on the stock. Aspen Technology traded as high as $240.73 and last traded at $240.00, with a volume of 4673 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $236.00.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $225.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler raised 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $248.40.

Insider Activity

In other Aspen Technology news, Director Jr. Robert M. Whelan sold 1,000 shares of Aspen Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.10, for a total value of $219,100.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,871,114. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aspen Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AZPN. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 313,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,931,000 after acquiring an additional 16,649 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 31,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 735 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Aspen Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $31,630,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 5,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Aspen Technology by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $492,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.66% of the company’s stock.

Aspen Technology Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $14.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -535.36, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $210.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $206.16.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 positive return on equity of 2.96% and a negative net margin of 0.87%. Aspen Technology’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current 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.