ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

Equities researchers at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) in a report issued on Tuesday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on ANSS. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of ANSYS from $350.00 to $330.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $345.00 price objective on shares of ANSYS in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of ANSYS from $314.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research restated a “peer perform” rating on shares of ANSYS in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $320.00.

ANSYS Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ANSS opened at $328.57 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $336.80 and a 200 day moving average of $321.12. The stock has a market cap of $28.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.34, a P/E/G ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 1.16. ANSYS has a 12 month low of $258.01 and a 12 month high of $364.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.30, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The software maker reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.71 by $0.23. ANSYS had a net margin of 22.05% and a return on equity of 11.83%. The business had revenue of $805.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $797.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.61 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ANSYS will post 7.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at ANSYS

In related news, Director Glenda Dorchak sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.08, for a total transaction of $51,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,043,001.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANSS. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in ANSYS by 167.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,286,790 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $382,884,000 after purchasing an additional 805,657 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of ANSYS in the 4th quarter worth about $282,329,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in shares of ANSYS in the 4th quarter worth about $145,144,000. Comerica Bank grew its position in shares of ANSYS by 1,922.9% in the 3rd quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 329,577 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $98,066,000 after buying an additional 313,285 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of ANSYS by 210.1% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 325,000 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $117,936,000 after buying an additional 220,200 shares during the period. 92.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About ANSYS

ANSYS, Inc develops and markets engineering simulation software and services for engineers, designers, researchers, and students in the United States, Japan, Germany, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It offers structural analysis product suite that provides simulation tools for product design and optimization; the Ansys Mechanical product, an element analysis software; LS-DYNA solver for multiphysics simulation; and power analysis and optimization software suite.