Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) Given “Buy” Rating at Craig Hallum

Craig Hallum restated their buy rating on shares of Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Craig Hallum currently has a $56.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Simulations Plus from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. William Blair began coverage on Simulations Plus in a report on Friday, June 28th. They issued an outperform rating for the company.

Simulations Plus Stock Down 14.9 %

Shares of SLP opened at $39.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $797.20 million, a P/E ratio of 75.26 and a beta of 0.72. Simulations Plus has a twelve month low of $32.69 and a twelve month high of $52.69. The company has a 50 day moving average of $47.68 and a 200-day moving average of $44.15.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 2nd. The technology company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $18.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.92 million. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 7.95% and a net margin of 16.22%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Simulations Plus Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 29th. Simulations Plus’s dividend payout ratio is 45.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Simulations Plus

In other Simulations Plus news, Director Daniel L. Weiner sold 3,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $423,147.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Simulations Plus news, Director Daniel L. Weiner sold 3,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $423,147.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 44,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,072,198 in the last quarter. 20.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Simulations Plus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SLP. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 9,647 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $432,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 5.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,048 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares during the period. Canton Hathaway LLC increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC now owns 5,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 9.1% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 14,143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $582,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 1.4% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 88,142 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,203 shares during the period. 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.