Short Interest in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Grows By 59.7%

Key Points

• Short interest in Simulations Plus surged 59.7% to 2.84 million shares as of July 31, representing 17.4% of shares outstanding and 5.2 days to cover.
• Analyst sentiment weakened, with several firms downgrading the stock to Hold or Market Perform. The consensus rating is “Reduce,” with an average price target of $17.25.
• Despite the bearish short-interest trend, Simulations Plus exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.30 in EPS versus $0.23 expected and revenue of $21.89 million versus $20.90 million projected.

Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,844,266 shares, an increase of 59.7% from the July 15th total of 1,780,772 shares. Approximately 17.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 542,524 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on SLP. Craig Hallum cut shares of Simulations Plus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $18.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Simulations Plus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 13th. William Blair cut shares of Simulations Plus from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Simulations Plus from a "sell (d)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $17.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total transaction of $77,023.88. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,202,131 shares in the company, valued at $59,047,295.64. This trade represents a 0.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Simulations Plus

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Light Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 33.7% during the 1st quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 2,632,823 shares of the technology company's stock worth $31,120,000 after purchasing an additional 663,906 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,503,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 25.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 875,447 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $15,277,000 after purchasing an additional 176,747 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 127.5% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 569,783 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,387,000 after buying an additional 319,301 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 513,728 shares of the technology company's stock worth $9,365,000 after buying an additional 120,888 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.08% of the company's stock.

Simulations Plus Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of SLP opened at $18.36 on Tuesday. Simulations Plus has a 52-week low of $11.09 and a 52-week high of $21.01. The firm's fifty day moving average is $18.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.27. The stock has a market cap of $371.42 million, a PE ratio of 45.90 and a beta of 1.32.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $21.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $20.90 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 13.50%.

About Simulations Plus

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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