LPL Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 8,245 Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

LPL Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 8,245 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 390.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 28,473 shares of the technology company's stock worth $911,000 after buying an additional 22,669 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter valued at $719,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Simulations Plus by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 448,618 shares of the technology company's stock worth $14,367,000 after purchasing an additional 18,924 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 106.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 47,365 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,517,000 after purchasing an additional 24,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter valued at about $330,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on SLP shares. KeyCorp upped their target price on Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com raised Simulations Plus from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Simulations Plus has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $50.00.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

SLP traded down $0.24 during trading on Friday, hitting $33.32. The stock had a trading volume of 273,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 202,950. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.01 and a twelve month high of $51.22. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.37. The company has a market capitalization of $670.10 million, a PE ratio of 83.30 and a beta of 1.13.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.06. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 6.84% and a net margin of 10.97%. The business had revenue of $22.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.93 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The company's revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total value of $670,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 19.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Simulations Plus Profile

Simulations Plus, Inc develops drug discovery and development software for modeling and simulation, and prediction of molecular properties utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning based technology worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Software and Services. It offers GastroPlus, which simulates the absorption and drug interaction of compounds administered to humans and animals; and DDDPlus and MembranePlus simulation products.