Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $263.64 and last traded at $263.40, with a volume of 327294 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $255.16.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AZPN. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Aspen Technology from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Berenberg Bank cut shares of Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Aspen Technology in a research report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Aspen Technology from $217.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $258.00.

Aspen Technology Trading Up 3.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $16.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -454.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s 50-day moving average is $250.59 and its 200-day moving average is $232.27.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.54). Aspen Technology had a negative net margin of 3.26% and a positive return on equity of 2.81%. The firm had revenue of $215.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $265.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.96 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.68 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZPN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 89.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 363,449 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $86,799,000 after purchasing an additional 171,351 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Aspen Technology by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 166,352 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,728,000 after buying an additional 39,396 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 167,832 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,082,000 after buying an additional 10,327 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 15.9% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 23,240 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,550,000 after acquiring an additional 3,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 5.2% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 582,682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $139,156,000 after acquiring an additional 28,820 shares during the period. 45.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.