Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning.

SLP has been the subject of several other reports. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Simulations Plus presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $50.00.

Simulations Plus Price Performance

Shares of SLP stock traded down $0.79 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $33.56. The stock had a trading volume of 277,993 shares, compared to its average volume of 202,197. Simulations Plus has a fifty-two week low of $23.01 and a fifty-two week high of $51.22. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $28.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.35. The firm has a market cap of $674.93 million, a PE ratio of 83.90 and a beta of 1.13.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.06. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 10.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The business had revenue of $22.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $21.93 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. The company's revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Simulations Plus will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Simulations Plus

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 19.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Simulations Plus

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Simulations Plus by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,609,388 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $63,982,000 after purchasing an additional 383,126 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 607,902 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $16,954,000 after buying an additional 86,868 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 7,753.3% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 542,899 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $15,141,000 after buying an additional 535,986 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 448,618 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $14,367,000 after buying an additional 18,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,241 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $11,693,000 after buying an additional 24,266 shares during the last quarter. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Simulations Plus Company 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.