BNP Paribas Financial Markets Trims Stock Position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets decreased its stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 33.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,655 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 13,289 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned approximately 0.13% of Simulations Plus worth $743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Simulations Plus by 106.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 47,365 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,517,000 after buying an additional 24,371 shares during the period. Tributary Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 396,093 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,047,000 after acquiring an additional 70,526 shares in the last quarter. Cook Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. Cook Wealth LLC now owns 12,386 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,226,262 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $62,090,000 after acquiring an additional 290,414 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR purchased a new position in shares of Simulations Plus in the 4th quarter valued at about $905,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Shares of SLP stock opened at $32.49 on Friday. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.01 and a fifty-two week high of $50.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $653.41 million, a P/E ratio of 81.23 and a beta of 1.10.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $22.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 earnings per share. Simulations Plus’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Simulations Plus from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Simulations Plus currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were 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 approximately $112,062,701.07. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 19.40% 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.