Simulations Plus, Inc. $SLP Stock Position Boosted by First Light Asset Management LLC

First Light Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 33.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,632,823 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 663,906 shares during the period. Simulations Plus makes up 2.8% of First Light Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. First Light Asset Management LLC owned about 13.03% of Simulations Plus worth $31,120,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Simulations Plus by 1,898.1% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 457,155 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,334,000 after purchasing an additional 434,275 shares in the last quarter. Meros Investment Management LP purchased a new position in Simulations Plus during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,184,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 127.5% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 569,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,387,000 after acquiring an additional 319,301 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 278.6% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 427,865 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,800,000 after purchasing an additional 314,844 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 522.1% in the 3rd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 220,103 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,317,000 after buying an additional 184,725 shares in the last quarter. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on SLP. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Craig Hallum downgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $18.50 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Simulations Plus from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Finally, William Blair downgraded Simulations Plus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $17.25.

Simulations Plus Price Performance

SLP opened at $18.34 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $371.02 million, a P/E ratio of 45.85 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $17.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.44. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.09 and a fifty-two week high of $21.01.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.07. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 13.50%. The firm had revenue of $21.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.90 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $77,023.88. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,202,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,047,295.64. This trade represents a 0.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Simulations Plus Profile

Simulations Plus, Inc (NASDAQ: SLP) specializes in advanced modeling and simulation software tailored to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. The company’s flagship products include ADMET Predictor, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) tool for predicting absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity properties, and GastroPlus, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling platform for simulating drug absorption and pharmacokinetics.