Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Buy" from the seven analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $50.00.

SLP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Simulations Plus from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total transaction of $670,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 19.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Simulations Plus

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Stephens Inc. AR purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at about $905,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 91,177 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,543,000 after buying an additional 3,904 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its stake in Simulations Plus by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 91,500 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,552,000 after buying an additional 14,871 shares during the last quarter. Olympiad Research LP purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at about $211,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at about $719,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Simulations Plus Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of Simulations Plus stock opened at $27.79 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $30.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.37. The company has a market capitalization of $558.88 million, a PE ratio of 69.48 and a beta of 1.10. Simulations Plus has a 52 week low of $23.01 and a 52 week high of $50.11.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $22.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.93 million. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 6.84% and a net margin of 10.97%. Simulations Plus's quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus 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.

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