William Blair Begins Coverage on Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP)

William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

SLP has been the topic of several other reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Simulations Plus from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Craig Hallum boosted their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th.

Simulations Plus Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of SLP stock opened at $48.62 on Friday. Simulations Plus has a 12-month low of $32.69 and a 12-month high of $52.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $971.91 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.74 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $47.77 and a 200-day moving average of $44.12.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $18.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.31 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 16.22% and a return on equity of 7.95%. The firm’s revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. Research analysts expect that Simulations Plus will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Simulations Plus Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Simulations Plus’s payout ratio is 45.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.95, for a total value of $919,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,580,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $164,540,379.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.95, for a total value of $919,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,580,857 shares in the company, valued at approximately $164,540,379.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Daniel L. Weiner sold 3,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.31, for a total transaction of $157,007.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,759 shares in the company, valued at approximately $423,147.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,101,008. 20.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Simulations Plus

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 9,647 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $432,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,048 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $414,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC now owns 5,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 14,143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $582,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Simulations Plus by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 88,142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,203 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.