Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) Upgraded at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

SLP has been the topic of a number of other reports. BTIG Research dropped their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp started coverage on Simulations Plus in a research report on Monday, July 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com cut Simulations Plus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Shares of SLP stock opened at $28.77 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $577.33 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.71 and a beta of 0.71. Simulations Plus has a 52 week low of $27.22 and a 52 week high of $51.22. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.93.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 14.15%. The business had revenue of $18.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.73 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.18 earnings per share. Simulations Plus’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Simulations Plus will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.18, for a total value of $703,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,501,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $123,186,006.56. This represents a 0.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 60,750 shares of company stock worth $1,905,655 over the last ninety days. 20.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Simulations Plus

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,135,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,710,000 after purchasing an additional 12,636 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 4.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 640,303 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,503,000 after buying an additional 28,953 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 18,924 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 414,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,128,000 after acquiring an additional 37,992 shares during the period. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Simulations Plus by 54.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 325,567 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,425,000 after acquiring an additional 115,122 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

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.