Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Simulations Plus currently carries an average analyst rating of "Hold" from nine brokerages, with one sell, seven hold, and one buy recommendation. The average 12-month price target is about $19.88.
• Recent analyst actions have been mostly cautious, including target-price cuts and multiple downgrades from firms such as TD Cowen, William Blair, Wall Street Zen, and Craig Hallum.
• The company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, posting $0.30 EPS versus $0.23 expected and revenue of $21.89 million versus $20.90 million expected, even as the stock traded slightly lower on the day.

Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Hold" from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $19.8750.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Simulations Plus from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. William Blair downgraded Simulations Plus from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered Simulations Plus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Weiss Ratings raised Simulations Plus from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Craig Hallum downgraded Simulations Plus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $18.50 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, June 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Simulations Plus news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total transaction of $77,023.88. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,202,131 shares in the company, valued at $59,047,295.64. This represents a 0.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 6,177 shares of company stock worth $108,754 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 19.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Simulations Plus during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,831 shares of the technology company's stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 585 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Simulations Plus by 59.3% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,485 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 1,669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp acquired a new stake in Simulations Plus in the first quarter valued at about $54,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Simulations Plus Trading Down 0.5%

SLP stock traded down $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $18.24. 423,565 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 640,852. Simulations Plus has a 12 month low of $11.09 and a 12 month high of $21.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $368.45 million, a P/E ratio of 45.60 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.49.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.07. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 13.78%. The business had revenue of $21.89 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.90 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Simulations Plus will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

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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