Short Interest in Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) Increases By 32.2%

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) saw a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,600,000 shares, an increase of 32.2% from the January 31st total of 1,210,000 shares. Approximately 6.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 579,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Aspen Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AZPN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 89.2% during the 3rd 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. increased its holdings in Aspen Technology by 31.0% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 166,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,728,000 after purchasing an additional 39,396 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Aspen Technology by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 167,832 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,082,000 after purchasing an additional 10,327 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Aspen Technology by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 23,240 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,550,000 after purchasing an additional 3,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 632,545 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Loop Capital upgraded Aspen Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $265.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective (down from $275.00) on shares of Aspen Technology in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Berenberg Bank lowered shares of Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Baird R W cut Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $272.00.

Aspen Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ:AZPN traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $264.65. The stock had a trading volume of 238,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 624,293. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 3,308.48, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.76. Aspen Technology has a 1-year low of $171.25 and a 1-year high of $277.37. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $258.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.01.

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