Arizona State Retirement System Has $550,000 Stock Holdings in Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its stake in Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,266 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,865 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Certara were worth $550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Certara by 157.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,796,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,743,000 after buying an additional 9,055,874 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Certara by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,652,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,466,000 after purchasing an additional 626,267 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Certara by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 7,150,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,974,000 after purchasing an additional 77,805 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Certara by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,900,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,715,000 after purchasing an additional 102,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Certara by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,245,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,107,000 after purchasing an additional 21,619 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.96% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Certara

In other Certara news, insider Patrick F. Smith sold 14,427 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.85, for a total value of $243,094.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $844,033.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Patrick F. Smith sold 14,427 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.85, for a total value of $243,094.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 50,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $844,033.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Richard M. Traynor sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total transaction of $54,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 173,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,123,432. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,427 shares of company stock valued at $405,095 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Certara from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JMP Securities started coverage on shares of Certara in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. SVB Leerink started coverage on shares of Certara in a report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $19.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp raised shares of Certara from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $23.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Certara in a report on Monday, February 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.06.

Certara Price Performance

Shares of Certara stock opened at $15.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 2.62. Certara, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.81 and a fifty-two week high of $24.96. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.16. The company has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of -45.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.63.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.04). Certara had a negative net margin of 15.62% and a positive return on equity of 4.33%. The company had revenue of $88.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.80 million. Analysts expect that Certara, Inc. will post 0.29 EPS for the current year.

Certara Company Profile

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.