Ameriprise Financial Inc. Purchases 86,868 Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 16.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 607,902 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 86,868 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned approximately 3.03% of Simulations Plus worth $16,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $719,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 106.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 47,365 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,517,000 after acquiring an additional 24,371 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter worth about $330,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 396,093 shares of the technology company's stock worth $11,047,000 after purchasing an additional 70,526 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 502.9% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,689 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of 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 shares of Simulations Plus from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Insider Activity at Simulations Plus

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total transaction of $670,200.00. Following the sale, the director now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 19.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Simulations Plus stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $31.83. The stock had a trading volume of 32,210 shares, compared to its average volume of 213,772. The stock has a market capitalization of $640.03 million, a P/E ratio of 79.39 and a beta of 1.10. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $29.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.33. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.01 and a 1-year high of $50.98.

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

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.