Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Grows Position in Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) by 31.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 166,352 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 39,396 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Aspen Technology were worth $39,728,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in Aspen Technology by 1,034.4% in 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 last quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Aspen Technology during the second quarter worth about $3,042,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 89.4% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,114 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $432,000 after buying an additional 998 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Aspen Technology by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 582,682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $139,156,000 after buying an additional 28,820 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new position in Aspen Technology in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $6,080,000. 45.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AZPN has been the subject of several research reports. Berenberg Bank cut shares of Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target 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. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Aspen Technology in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Aspen Technology from $225.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their target price on Aspen Technology from $204.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $253.00.

Aspen Technology Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ AZPN opened at $250.85 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $15.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -432.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $238.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $217.74. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a 52-week low of $171.25 and a 52-week high of $251.13.

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

Insider Transactions at Aspen Technology

In other Aspen Technology news, Director Jr. Robert M. Whelan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now owns 8,540 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,871,114. This trade represents a 10.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Aspen Technology 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.