Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Raises Stock Holdings in Certara, Inc. $CERT

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its stake in shares of Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 200,068 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 16,779 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio owned 0.12% of Certara worth $2,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Certara by 534.5% in the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 1,094,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,836,000 after acquiring an additional 922,007 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Certara by 13.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,295,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,526,000 after purchasing an additional 515,911 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Certara in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,950,000. Royce & Associates LP acquired a new position in Certara during the first quarter worth $4,439,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Certara during the first quarter worth $2,676,000. 73.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Certara Price Performance

Shares of CERT opened at $13.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 272.05 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.32. Certara, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.64 and a twelve month high of $15.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $104.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $104.14 million. Certara had a return on equity of 5.11% and a net margin of 1.97%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Certara, Inc. will post 0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CERT. Craig Hallum initiated coverage on Certara in a research note on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Certara from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Certara from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley initiated 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. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Certara from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.50.

Insider Activity at Certara

In other news, insider Leif E. Pedersen sold 51,224 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.92, for a total value of $559,366.08. Following the transaction, the insider owned 73,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,850.68. This represents a 40.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 2.33% of the company’s stock.

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.