Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) Short Interest Update

Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,330,000 shares, a drop of 18.1% from the August 31st total of 5,290,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Leif E. Pedersen sold 51,224 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $578,318.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 99,704 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,125,658.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Certara

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mubadala Investment Co PJSC purchased a new position in Certara in the fourth quarter valued at $169,135,000. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Certara by 23.4% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 4,924,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,056,000 after purchasing an additional 932,598 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Certara by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 4,404,199 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,747,000 after purchasing an additional 579,349 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Certara by 0.8% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,173,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,617,000 after purchasing an additional 32,846 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Certara by 9.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,079,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,643,000 after purchasing an additional 273,095 shares during the period. 73.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CERT shares. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Certara in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Certara from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Certara from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Certara from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Certara from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Certara has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.79.

Certara Stock Performance

NASDAQ CERT traded up $1.05 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.75. The stock had a trading volume of 1,566,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 727,053. Certara has a 52-week low of $10.35 and a 52-week high of $19.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a current ratio of 2.61. The stock has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $12.73 and a 200 day moving average of $15.11.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.03). Certara had a negative net margin of 21.64% and a positive return on equity of 3.03%. The company had revenue of $93.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.01 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Certara will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current year.

About Certara

Certara, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software products and technology-enabled services to customers for biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submissions, and market access in the United States and internationally. It offers solutions for model-informed drug development, as well as biosimulation solution used to predict both pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.