Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) Short Interest Up 60.8% in May

Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,500,000 shares, a growth of 60.8% from the April 30th total of 932,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 225,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.6 days. Currently, 5.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aspen Technology

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Aspen Technology in the third quarter valued at approximately $662,551,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 103,662.9% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,567,858 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $322,038,000 after buying an additional 1,566,347 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 26.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,820,843 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,103,346,000 after buying an additional 1,013,697 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 19.5% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 3,597,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $823,267,000 after buying an additional 585,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Aspen Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $77,022,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 44.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AZPN. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $240.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. William Blair lowered shares of Aspen Technology from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Aspen Technology in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $270.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Aspen Technology from $260.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $217.83.

Aspen Technology Price Performance

Aspen Technology stock traded down $1.89 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $164.00. The stock had a trading volume of 240,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 214,346. The company has a market cap of $10.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -172.63, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $200.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $209.10. Aspen Technology has a 52 week low of $161.40 and a 52 week high of $263.59.

Aspen Technology Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Aspen Technology together with its subsidiaries develops and supplies integrated software and services that enable the process industries to design, operate, manage, and optimize their business processes. Its software applications utilize proprietary empirical models of chemical manufacturing processes to enhance plant and process design, economic evaluation, production, production planning and scheduling, supply chain optimization, and operational performance.