Nicholas Company Inc. Buys 78,854 Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. $SLP

Key Points

• Nicholas Company Inc. increased its Simulations Plus stake by 42.9% in the fourth quarter, buying 78,854 additional shares and bringing its total to 262,712 shares worth about $4.79 million.
• Institutional ownership remains high, with hedge funds and other institutions holding about 78.08% of Simulations Plus shares after several firms recently added to or initiated positions.
• Analyst sentiment is cautious: recent rating cuts helped keep the consensus at “Hold,” and the average price target stands at $24.40, even though the stock opened at $16.68.

Nicholas Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 42.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 262,712 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 78,854 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. owned approximately 1.30% of Simulations Plus worth $4,789,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus during the second quarter worth $25,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus during the third quarter worth $28,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 3,729.1% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,106 shares of the technology company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 2,051 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 32.5% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,167 shares of the technology company's stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on SLP shares. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Simulations Plus from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of Simulations Plus from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Simulations Plus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $24.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Shares of SLP opened at $16.68 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $336.94 million, a P/E ratio of -5.33 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $12.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.87. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 12 month low of $11.09 and a 12 month high of $34.01.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 9th. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.08. Simulations Plus had a negative net margin of 77.96% and a positive return on equity of 16.21%. The firm had revenue of $24.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.66 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simulations Plus Profile

Simulations Plus, Inc NASDAQ: SLP specializes in advanced modeling and simulation software tailored to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. The company's flagship products include ADMET Predictor, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) tool for predicting absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity properties, and GastroPlus, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling platform for simulating drug absorption and pharmacokinetics.

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