Marshall Wace LLP Purchases 54,858 Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 116.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 102,077 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 54,858 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned about 0.51% of Simulations Plus worth $2,847,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,226,262 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $62,090,000 after acquiring an additional 290,414 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Simulations Plus by 4.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 448,618 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $14,367,000 after purchasing an additional 18,924 shares during the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $11,047,000 after purchasing an additional 70,526 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP grew its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 56.6% during the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 371,797 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,369,000 after purchasing an additional 134,381 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 59.4% in the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 289,286 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $8,068,000 after buying an additional 107,766 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions 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 shares were sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total value of $670,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 19.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Simulations Plus Price Performance

Shares of Simulations Plus stock traded down $0.04 on Friday, hitting $33.53. 43,798 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 201,573. The company has a market capitalization of $674.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.81 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a fifty day moving average of $28.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.36. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a one year low of $23.01 and a one year high of $51.22.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $22.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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.