Simulations Plus, Inc. $SLP Shares Sold by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.2%, selling 47,764 shares, and now holds approximately 5.46% of the company’s stock valued at $26.93 million.
• Other institutional investors such as Barclays PLC and First Trust Advisors LP have increased their stakes in Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter.
• Simulations Plus reported $0.45 EPS for its latest quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates, but its revenue of $20.36 million fell short of expectations.

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,098,365 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 47,764 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 5.46% of Simulations Plus worth $26,932,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,485 shares of the technology company's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 42.2% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,575 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 764 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 15.6% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,576 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $161,000 after acquiring an additional 889 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus during the first quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 9,103 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Stephens cut their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $28.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Simulations Plus from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Craig Hallum cut their price objective on shares of Simulations Plus from $45.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Simulations Plus to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $26.50.

Simulations Plus Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ SLP traded down $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $14.35. The company had a trading volume of 25,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 428,407. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.70. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.39 and a fifty-two week high of $37.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $288.78 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.55 and a beta of 0.85.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 14th. The technology company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.19. Simulations Plus had a negative net margin of 78.63% and a positive return on equity of 11.62%. The business had revenue of $20.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current 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.