Martin Currie Ltd. Sells 594 Shares of Synopsys, Inc. $SNPS

Key Points

• Martin Currie Ltd. reduced its stake in Synopsys, Inc. by 2.1% during the first quarter, holding 28,070 shares valued at approximately $12.04 million after selling 594 shares.
• Institutional investors own 85.47% of Synopsys, with notable recent purchases including a 467.8% increase in SlateStone Wealth LLC's position and a new investment from Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC worth $1 million.
• Synopsys reported a 10.3% year-over-year increase in revenue for its latest quarter, totaling $1.60 billion, and surpassed analysts' EPS expectations by $0.27.

Martin Currie Ltd. cut its holdings in Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS - Free Report) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 28,070 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 594 shares during the period. Martin Currie Ltd.'s holdings in Synopsys were worth $12,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Synopsys by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,829,770 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $6,359,747,000 after purchasing an additional 346,994 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Synopsys by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,280,182 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $3,533,526,000 after purchasing an additional 114,893 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Synopsys by 21.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,902,696 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $2,864,933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,326 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of Synopsys by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,432,596 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,043,518,000 after acquiring an additional 673,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Synopsys by 26.2% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,888,181 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $916,441,000 after acquiring an additional 391,681 shares in the last quarter. 85.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Synopsys

In other Synopsys news, CRO Richard S. Mahoney sold 9,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.21, for a total value of $4,245,602.10. Following the transaction, the executive directly owned 1,485 shares of the company's stock, valued at $699,746.85. This represents a 85.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sassine Ghazi sold 11,366 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.93, for a total transaction of $5,204,832.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 71,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,782,750.77. This represents a 13.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,686 shares of company stock valued at $13,001,048 in the last three months. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Synopsys in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Synopsys from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Synopsys in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $620.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $715.00 target price (up from $540.00) on shares of Synopsys in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Synopsys from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $630.67.

Synopsys Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SNPS traded up $1.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $617.91. The stock had a trading volume of 881,572 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,514,814. Synopsys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $365.74 and a twelve month high of $651.73. The stock has a market cap of $95.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.61, a PEG ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 1.15. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $558.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $497.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 6.85 and a current ratio of 7.02.

Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The semiconductor company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.60 billion. Synopsys had a net margin of 34.77% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The business's revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Synopsys, Inc. will post 10.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Synopsys Profile

Synopsys, Inc provides electronic design automation software products used to design and test integrated circuits. It operates in three segments: Design Automation, Design IP, and Software Integrity. The company offers Digital and Custom IC Design solution that provides digital design implementation solutions; Verification solution that offers virtual prototyping, static and formal verification, simulation, emulation, field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based prototyping, and debug solutions; and FPGA design products that are programmed to perform specific functions.