JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 210.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,154 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 99,789 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.73% of Simulations Plus worth $4,104,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Summitry LLC acquired a new position in shares of Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter worth $2,385,000. LPL Financial LLC acquired a new position in Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter worth about $230,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter worth about $86,000. Sei Investments Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at about $330,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 191.6% during the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 5,371 shares of the technology company's stock worth $150,000 after acquiring an additional 3,529 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Simulations Plus Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ SLP traded down $0.09 on Friday, hitting $35.79. 56,518 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 198,194. The company has a market cap of $719.75 million, a PE ratio of 89.82 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $28.44 and a 200-day moving average of $30.22. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.01 and a 12 month high of $51.22.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $21.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. The business's revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on SLP. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $50.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.91, for a total transaction of $678,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,402,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at $115,381,623.44. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 19.40% of the company's stock.

Simulations Plus Profile

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.