Arizona State Retirement System Takes Position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Arizona State Retirement System purchased a new position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,475 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SLP. Ophir Asset Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Simulations Plus in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,156,000. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Simulations Plus during the first quarter worth $4,717,000. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in Simulations Plus by 36.5% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 381,693 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,707,000 after acquiring an additional 102,135 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 34.6% in the first quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 171,490 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,057,000 after acquiring an additional 44,129 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,320,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on SLP shares. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Craig Hallum reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. JMP Securities initiated coverage on Simulations Plus in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Monday, July 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Simulations Plus presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.00.

Insider Transactions at Simulations Plus

In other Simulations Plus news, Director Daniel L. Weiner sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total transaction of $36,990.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,683.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Simulations Plus news, Director Daniel L. Weiner sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total transaction of $36,990.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,009 shares in the company, valued at approximately $345,683.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.63, for a total transaction of $792,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,521,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $139,560,690.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,750 shares of company stock worth $2,467,390. 20.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

SLP opened at $31.45 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $37.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $629.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.52 and a beta of 0.70. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.41 and a fifty-two week high of $51.22.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 2nd. The technology company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $18.54 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.92 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.80%. The company’s revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Simulations Plus Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Simulations Plus’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.00%.

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.