First Light Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Simulations Plus, Inc. $SLP

First Light Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 6.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,792,677 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 159,854 shares during the quarter. Simulations Plus comprises about 3.1% of First Light Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. First Light Asset Management LLC owned about 0.14% of Simulations Plus worth $51,134,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of SLP. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Simulations Plus in the second quarter worth $27,503,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 25.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 875,447 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,277,000 after purchasing an additional 176,747 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 127.5% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 569,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,387,000 after purchasing an additional 319,301 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 513,728 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,365,000 after purchasing an additional 120,888 shares during the period. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $8,334,000 after purchasing an additional 434,275 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Walter Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $77,023.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,202,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,047,295.64. The trade was a 0.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Simulations Plus from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. William Blair downgraded shares of Simulations Plus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Craig Hallum lowered 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $17.25.

Simulations Plus Price Performance

Shares of Simulations Plus stock opened at $18.42 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $372.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.05 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $18.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.76. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.09 and a 1 year high of $21.01.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $21.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.90 million.

Simulations Plus Company 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.