K2 Principal Fund L.P. Makes New Investment in Certara, Inc. $CERT

Key Points

• K2 Principal Fund L.P. has acquired a new position in Certara, Inc. by purchasing 58,951 shares valued at approximately $584,000 in the first quarter.
• Several hedge funds increased their stakes in Certara, with total institutional ownership now at 73.96% of the company's stock.
• Certara recently missed earnings expectations, reporting $0.07 earnings per share, below the consensus estimate of $0.10, despite a year-over-year revenue increase of 12.1%.

K2 Principal Fund L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 58,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $584,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in shares of Certara by 48.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,208 shares of the company's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Certara during the 4th quarter worth about $140,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Certara by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 71,494 shares of the company's stock worth $762,000 after acquiring an additional 4,229 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Certara by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 23,720 shares of the company's stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Certara by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 877,010 shares of the company's stock worth $9,340,000 after acquiring an additional 108,038 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.96% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CERT. UBS Group decreased their target price on Certara from $17.50 to $15.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Certara in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Zacks Research raised Certara from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on Certara from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $15.14.

Certara Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of CERT stock traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $10.96. 2,220,461 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,681,958. Certara, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $8.64 and a fifty-two week high of $15.69. The stock has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.24 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.31.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.03). Certara had a net margin of 1.97% and a return on equity of 5.11%. The firm had revenue of $104.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $104.14 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.07 EPS. Certara's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Certara, Inc. will post 0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Certara

Certara, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software products and technology-enabled services to customers for biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submissions, and market access in the United States and internationally. It offers solutions for model-informed drug development, as well as biosimulation solution used to predict both pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.