Simulations Plus Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:SLP)

Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 3,557 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,414% compared to the typical volume of 235 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total value of $670,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at $112,062,701.07. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 19.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,223 shares of the technology company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 33.8% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,485 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 42.2% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,575 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 502.9% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,689 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares during the last quarter. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Simulations Plus Price Performance

NASDAQ:SLP traded down $3.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,167,520 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,575. The stock has a market cap of $283.87 million, a P/E ratio of 40.39 and a beta of 0.83. Simulations Plus has a twelve month low of $13.57 and a twelve month high of $44.33. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $24.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.37.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 14th. The technology company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.19. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 7.86% and a net margin of 9.18%. The company had revenue of $20.36 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.83 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. Simulations Plus's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Simulations Plus will post 1.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Craig Hallum dropped their price objective on Simulations Plus from $45.00 to $36.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 13th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on Simulations Plus from $41.00 to $25.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Stephens decreased their price target on Simulations Plus from $28.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $26.50.

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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