Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Leerink Partners upgraded the stock from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. The stock had previously closed at $9.04, but opened at $9.43. Leerink Partners now has a $13.00 price target on the stock. Certara shares last traded at $9.5850, with a volume of 298,535 shares changing hands.

CERT has been the subject of several other reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn assumed coverage on Certara in a report on Friday, November 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price objective for the company. Barclays dropped their price target on Certara from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Certara in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Craig Hallum assumed coverage on shares of Certara in a research note on Monday, September 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Certara in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.92.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CERT. Kopion Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Certara by 49.9% during the fourth quarter. Kopion Asset Management LLC now owns 982,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,658,000 after buying an additional 327,064 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Certara during the third quarter worth approximately $2,844,000. Morningstar Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Certara during the third quarter worth approximately $1,598,000. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its stake in Certara by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 17,398,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,608,000 after acquiring an additional 3,865,455 shares during the period. Finally, Parkman Healthcare Partners LLC raised its holdings in Certara by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Parkman Healthcare Partners LLC now owns 551,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,744,000 after acquiring an additional 51,850 shares during the last quarter. 73.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Certara Trading Up 5.9%

The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of 136.71 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.03. Certara had a return on equity of 5.18% and a net margin of 2.62%.The business had revenue of $104.62 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $104.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.13 earnings per share. Certara has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.450-0.470 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Certara, Inc. will post 0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Certara Company Profile

Certara is a biosimulation software and services company that partners with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device developers to accelerate drug discovery, development and regulatory approval. The company’s platform integrates quantitative pharmacology, real-world evidence, artificial intelligence and machine learning to model and simulate drug behavior across a range of therapeutic areas and patient populations. By applying these mechanistic and data-driven approaches, Certara helps its clients predict clinical outcomes, optimize dosing strategies and streamline decision-making throughout the product lifecycle.

The company’s offerings are divided into software tools and consulting services.