Alteryx shares inch up premarket as Piper Sandler lifts rating of software group

Investing.com -- Shares in Alteryx (NYSE:AYX) rose in U.S. premarket trading on Friday after analysts at Piper Sandler upgraded their rating of the computer software group to "neutral" from "underweight."

In a note lifting its price target for the company to $50 from $32, the Piper Sandler analysts said the results of a survey they conducted showed a "material uptick in spending intentions on the analytics category." Alteryx's platform allows business to quickly sort and process data.

The analysts added that "improved" budget priorities and cost-cutting efforts should also aid growth next year.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that a private equity consortium led by Insight Partners and Clearlake Capital Group is in advanced talks to take Alteryx private in a deal worth around $5 billion, including debt. Alteryx has become an acquisition target as it struggles to claw back customers from bigger peers like Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Reuters noted.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the news agency also said that Insight and Clearlake would pay over $50 per share for California-based Alteryx, although the negotiations have yet to be finalized. Symphony Technology Group is also aiming to snap up Alteryx, one of the sources told Reuters.

"[A private equity deal] would make sense given the leadership team's aspirations to consolidate a highly fragmented analytics industry with the potential for a more aggressive pace of consolidation to occur as a private entity [versus a] public entity," the Piper Sandler analysts said.