Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $25.74, but opened at $28.68. Simulations Plus shares last traded at $30.82, with a volume of 250,693 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SLP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Simulations Plus from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Simulations Plus from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Simulations Plus presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $28.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $614.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.29 and a beta of 1.13.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $22.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.93 million. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 6.84% and a net margin of 10.97%. Simulations Plus’s quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.91, for a total value of $678,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,402,584 shares in the company, valued at $115,381,623.44. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 19.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,226,262 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,090,000 after buying an additional 290,414 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 640,303 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,503,000 after acquiring an additional 28,953 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Simulations Plus by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 607,902 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,954,000 after acquiring an additional 86,868 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 7,753.3% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 542,899 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,141,000 after purchasing an additional 535,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 4.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 448,618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,367,000 after purchasing an additional 18,924 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

About Simulations Plus

Simulations Plus, Inc develops drug discovery and development software for modeling and simulation, and prediction of molecular properties utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning based technology worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Software and Services. It offers GastroPlus, which simulates the absorption and drug interaction of compounds administered to humans and animals; and DDDPlus and MembranePlus simulation products.