Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) Hits New 1-Year Low After Insider Selling

Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $30.15 and last traded at $30.22, with a volume of 12580 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.85.

Specifically, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.26, for a total transaction of $625,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,481,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,834,565.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on SLP. Oppenheimer increased 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. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Thursday, September 12th. JMP Securities started coverage on Simulations Plus in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. KeyCorp started coverage on Simulations Plus in a research report on Monday, July 29th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $47.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Craig Hallum reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $56.00 target price on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.00.

Simulations Plus Stock Down 2.0 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $604.70 million, a P/E ratio of 64.27 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $35.20 and a 200-day moving average of $41.93.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SLP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Simulations Plus by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,135,105 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,710,000 after purchasing an additional 12,636 shares in the last quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 931,132 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,668,000 after buying an additional 12,505 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 414,005 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,128,000 after buying an additional 37,992 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in Simulations Plus by 36.5% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 381,693 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,707,000 after buying an additional 102,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC grew its position in Simulations Plus by 3.2% in the first quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 229,439 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,441,000 after acquiring an additional 7,077 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

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.