Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Shares Bought by Northern Trust Corp

Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 236,373 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 21,453 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.18% of Simulations Plus worth $6,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,223 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 42.2% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,575 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 764 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 502.9% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,689 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 2,243 shares during the period. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $86,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Simulations Plus stock opened at $31.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $630.08 million, a P/E ratio of 78.33 and a beta of 1.10. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.01 and a 1 year high of $50.98. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.15 and its 200-day moving average is $30.31.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total value of $670,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,344,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $112,062,701.07. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 19.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on SLP. KeyCorp upped their target price on Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Simulations Plus has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.00.

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.