Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Acquires 70 Shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,824 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Aspen Technology were worth $2,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AZPN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Aspen Technology by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,831,209 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $706,755,000 after acquiring an additional 36,497 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 2,272.7% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 690,940 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $172,479,000 after purchasing an additional 661,820 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 37,990.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 634,210 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $158,318,000 after buying an additional 632,545 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 171,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Aspen Technology during the fourth quarter worth $70,813,000. 45.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AZPN shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Aspen Technology from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Loop Capital raised Aspen Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $265.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price (down from $275.00) on shares of Aspen Technology in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Baird R W cut Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Aspen Technology in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.00.

Aspen Technology Price Performance

Shares of AZPN opened at $264.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $16.73 billion, a PE ratio of 3,304.54, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.73. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a 12-month low of $171.25 and a 12-month high of $277.37. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $264.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.57.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

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.