Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Lowers Stock Holdings in Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its position in shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,588 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Aspen Technology were worth $2,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 1,550 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 13,695 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,271,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in Aspen Technology by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,084 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $736,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 77.8% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 128 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. 45.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AZPN. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Aspen Technology from $204.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Aspen Technology from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Berenberg Bank cut Aspen Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Aspen Technology from $225.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Aspen Technology in a research note on Monday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aspen Technology has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $258.00.

Aspen Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZPN opened at $248.80 on Monday. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $171.25 and a fifty-two week high of $254.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.74 billion, a PE ratio of -428.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.76. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $243.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $221.36.

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