Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) have earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $50.00.

Several research analysts have issued reports on SLP shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Insider Transactions at Simulations Plus

In other Simulations Plus news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 3,344,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 19.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Simulations Plus

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SLP. Stephens Inc. AR purchased a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter worth $905,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 91,177 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,543,000 after acquiring an additional 3,904 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 91,500 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,552,000 after acquiring an additional 14,871 shares during the last quarter. Olympiad Research LP purchased a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter worth $211,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter worth $719,000. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

SLP stock opened at $27.22 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.36. Simulations Plus has a 52 week low of $23.01 and a 52 week high of $50.11. The company has a market capitalization of $547.42 million, a PE ratio of 68.05 and a beta of 0.97.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $22.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.93 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 10.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. Simulations Plus’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Simulations Plus will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

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.