LPL Financial LLC Acquires New Stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

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

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SLP. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 53.6% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,223 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 502.9% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,689 shares of the technology company's stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 2,243 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $86,000. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 191.6% in the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 5,371 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 3,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,687 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $159,000 after buying an additional 713 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Simulations Plus Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Simulations Plus stock traded down $0.13 on Monday, reaching $33.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 202,773. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.01 and a 52 week high of $51.22. The company has a market capitalization of $667.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.48 and a beta of 1.13. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $28.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.34.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $22.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.93 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 10.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The company's revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

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 transaction of $670,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,344,157 shares of the company's stock, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 19.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Simulations Plus from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Simulations Plus has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $50.00.

About Simulations Plus

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.