Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) have earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and seven have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $17.25.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 13th. William Blair downgraded Simulations Plus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Weiss Ratings raised Simulations Plus from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Craig Hallum lowered Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $18.50 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Simulations Plus from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 10th.

Insider Activity at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $77,023.88. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,202,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,047,295.64. The trade was a 0.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SLP. First Light Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,968,917 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,893,000 after buying an additional 1,201,157 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Simulations Plus by 1,898.1% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 457,155 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,334,000 after acquiring an additional 434,275 shares during the last quarter. Meros Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,184,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 127.5% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 569,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,387,000 after acquiring an additional 319,301 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 278.6% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 427,865 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,800,000 after acquiring an additional 314,844 shares during the period. 78.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Simulations Plus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SLP opened at $18.23 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $16.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.46. Simulations Plus has a 12 month low of $11.09 and a 12 month high of $21.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $368.79 million, a P/E ratio of 45.57 and a beta of 1.30.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $21.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.90 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 13.50%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Simulations Plus Company Profile

Simulations Plus, Inc (NASDAQ: SLP) specializes in advanced modeling and simulation software tailored to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. The company’s flagship products include ADMET Predictor, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) tool for predicting absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity properties, and GastroPlus, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling platform for simulating drug absorption and pharmacokinetics.