Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases 661,820 Shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN)

Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) by 2,272.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 690,940 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 661,820 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Aspen Technology were worth $172,479,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bailard Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 4,541 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,134,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group boosted its position in Aspen Technology by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group now owns 4,197 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,048,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Heritage Family Offices LLP grew its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 1,725 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $431,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Aspen Technology by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 251 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aspen Technology by 2.2% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 2,838 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $678,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. 45.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Aspen Technology Stock Performance

AZPN stock opened at $264.33 on Wednesday. Aspen Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $171.25 and a fifty-two week high of $277.37. The company has a market capitalization of $16.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3,304.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $264.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $251.21.

Aspen Technology (NASDAQ:AZPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.03. Aspen Technology had a return on equity of 3.17% and a net margin of 0.54%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Aspen Technology, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share 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.