Short Interest in PTC Inc. (NASDAQ:PTC) Increases By 32.9%

PTC Inc. (NASDAQ:PTC - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,220,000 shares, a growth of 32.9% from the March 15th total of 1,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 827,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PTC news, insider Catherine Kniker sold 1,330 shares of PTC stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.59, for a total transaction of $238,854.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,489,835.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Catherine Kniker sold 1,330 shares of PTC stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.59, for a total transaction of $238,854.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,864 shares in the company, valued at $2,489,835.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO James E. Heppelmann sold 35,000 shares of PTC stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.24, for a total value of $6,203,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 968,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $171,631,594.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,415 shares of company stock valued at $6,457,478 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.17% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in PTC by 205.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,606 shares of the technology company's stock worth $927,000 after buying an additional 5,789 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in PTC by 84.4% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,928 shares of the technology company's stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in PTC in the 1st quarter worth approximately $110,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in PTC by 42.9% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 33,353 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,593,000 after purchasing an additional 10,013 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in PTC by 128.5% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,904 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,175,000 after purchasing an additional 6,133 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on PTC shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on PTC from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on PTC from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on PTC from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $202.00 price objective on shares of PTC in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $195.00 price target on shares of PTC in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $196.73.

PTC Stock Performance

NASDAQ PTC traded down $2.21 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $177.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 998,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 841,232. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.76. PTC has a 52 week low of $120.62 and a 52 week high of $194.24. The stock has a market cap of $21.26 billion, a PE ratio of 90.28, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.17.

PTC (NASDAQ:PTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.07. PTC had a net margin of 10.86% and a return on equity of 12.87%. The company had revenue of $550.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.59 million. Equities research analysts predict that PTC will post 3.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About PTC

PTC Inc operates as software company in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides Windchill, a suite that manages all aspects of the product development lifecycle(PLM) that provides real-time information sharing, dynamic data visualization, collaborate across geographically distributed teams, and enabling manufacturers to elevate product development, manufacturing, and field service processes; ThingWorx, a platform for Industrial Internet of Things; ServiceMax, a field service management solutions enable companies to asset uptime with optimized in-person and remote service and technician productivity with mobile tools.