Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Buys 17,931 Shares of Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) by 53.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 51,788 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,931 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Certara were worth $513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Certara by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,437,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,455,000 after acquiring an additional 38,068 shares in the last quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC raised its stake in Certara by 164.2% during the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 6,213,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,171,000 after buying an additional 3,861,674 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Certara by 864.0% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,779,655 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,253,000 after purchasing an additional 3,387,590 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in Certara in the 4th quarter worth approximately $17,852,000. Finally, Daventry Group LP boosted its position in shares of Certara by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Daventry Group LP now owns 1,642,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,488,000 after buying an additional 127,954 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CERT shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Certara from $9.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Certara in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Certara in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company. Barclays upgraded shares of Certara from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $14.00 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Certara from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.29.

Certara Price Performance

Shares of CERT opened at $9.86 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 2.78. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.80. Certara, Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.64 and a 1-year high of $15.69. The stock has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a PE ratio of -493.00 and a beta of 1.42.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $106.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $104.44 million. Certara had a negative net margin of 0.67% and a positive return on equity of 5.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Certara, Inc. will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Certara 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.