The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price has been a strong performer this month.
Since the start of November, the electronic design software company's shares have risen 13%.
This compares favourably to a decline of almost 1% by the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
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Why is the Altium share price rising?
There have been a couple of catalysts for the strong performance by the Altium share price this month.
The first has been the company's annual general meeting update in the middle of the month. At the event, Altium's CEO, Aram Mirkazemi, revealed that the company is back on form and on track to achieve its guidance of 16% to 20% revenue growth in FY 2022. This will mean revenue of US$209 million to US$217 million.
Mr Mirkazemi also spoke positively about the future, stating that the company is powering its "growth engines of CAD, Cloud and Digital Bridges to not only dominate but to transform the electronics industry."
What else boosted its shares?
A broker note out of Bell Potter also appears to have given the Altium share price a boost this month.
At the beginning of the month, the broker upgraded Altium's shares to a buy rating and lifted its price target on them from $32.50 to $42.50.
Bell Potter made the move on the belief that Autodesk will be back with another takeover target in the future.
Earlier this year, Autodesk tabled a $38.50 per share takeover offer and then made a $40.00 per share verbal offer. Both were rejected by the Altium board.
And while Autodesk walked away following the rejections, the broker believes it could come knocking on Altium's door again. This is due to the broker's belief that Autodesk needs Altium's platform to complete its product offering.
Its analysts commented: "We have looked closely at Autodesk and what it is trying to achieve with its Fusion 360 platform and come to the conclusion that the ECAD functionality of the platform – provided by the recently integrated EAGLE – is probably not enough to deliver on the aim of the platform and effectively converge both the mechanical and electrical design processes."
"For this reason we believe Altium is still a takeover target for Autodesk as its PCB design software – Altium Designer (AD) – is high powered enough to provide the required functionality and so would be key in enabling Fusion 360 become the platform of choice for converged processes. Given the size of the prize is so large and is effectively a race with other industry heavyweights like Dassault Systèmes and Siemens we figure Autodesk will likely be back with a revised bid at some stage," the broker concluded.
