Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Grows Stock Position in ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,359 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,209 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in ANSYS were worth $8,217,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of ANSYS by 3.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,703,249 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,179,966,000 after purchasing an additional 106,187 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in ANSYS by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,305,554 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $732,672,000 after buying an additional 37,577 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in ANSYS by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 603,394 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $192,259,000 after buying an additional 44,605 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in ANSYS by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 570,525 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $192,456,000 after buying an additional 7,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ANSYS by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 532,142 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $169,556,000 after acquiring an additional 8,706 shares during the last quarter. 92.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on ANSS shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on ANSYS from $350.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of ANSYS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ANSYS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $346.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Glenda Dorchak sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.62, for a total value of $67,324.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,430 shares in the company, valued at $1,154,606.60. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ANSYS Stock Performance

ANSYS stock opened at $340.46 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $342.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $332.47. The company has a current ratio of 3.11, a quick ratio of 3.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. ANSYS, Inc. has a 52 week low of $289.82 and a 52 week high of $363.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.54, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.12.

ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The software maker reported $3.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.97 by ($0.32). ANSYS had a return on equity of 12.64% and a net margin of 23.01%. The company had revenue of $882.17 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $864.46 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that ANSYS, Inc. will post 7.66 earnings per share for the current year.

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.