The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price edged higher in afternoon trade to finish the day at $35.60 apiece. That's a 2.36% gain on yesterday's closing price.
It tops off a stellar run for the computer software company, whose share price has gained more than 7% in the past 2 weeks. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has climbed 1.7% during that period.
There's been no market-sensitive information from the company lately. However, it's worthwhile taking a dive in and seeing what's been driving the Altium share price in the past 2 weeks.
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Despite a choppy year to date, brokers say it's a buy
Although the Altium share price has been a net underperformer since January 1, it still hasn't escaped the radar of analysts at leading investment firms.
Investment banking giant Citi have a buy rating and $34.50 price target on Altium shares, citing the company's FY22 guidance and platform growth as key levers to its valuation.
Not only that, Citi's modelling indicates Altium's Octopart search engine segment saw a roughly 70% growth in site visits from the year prior in September.
Citi reckons this will carry through to the company's earnings results, and reflect favourably on the Altium share price.
What else is weighing in?
It's also worth noting that the S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology index (ASX: XIJ) has climbed around 6% in the past two weeks. Additionally, the wider S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) has ticked 5.5% higher as well.
This indicates strength across the broad ASX tech sector. This perhaps stems from volatility in the broad indices underscored by changing bond yields, a foreseeable energy crisis and other inflationary concerns.
While the dust settles on the US 10-year Treasury yield after it rallied to its highest level since June, investors appear to have regained confidence in growth-type tech shares once more, as capital rotates back into ASX-listed tech names.
This is after they originally took a hit due to the effect rising US bond yields have on the valuations of high-growth companies, whose cash flows are set to grow out into the future (versus the present).
Consequently ASX tech shares have been surfing the volatility wave, and now appear back in a cyclical upswing.
It appears this strength has carried across to the Altium share price, given the lack of price-sensitive market updates in its growth engine.
Altium share price snapshot
The Altium share price has been an underperformer this year to date, and has posted a return of just 4.7% since January 1.
Consequently it is 9% in the red over the last 12 months, well behind the broad index's return of around 19 in that time.
