Barclays PLC Raises Stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 390.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,473 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 22,669 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 0.14% of Simulations Plus worth $911,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 82.6% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 818 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 1,100.0% during the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Simulations Plus during the 3rd quarter worth $59,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Simulations Plus in the 2nd quarter worth about $206,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System bought a new position in Simulations Plus in the second quarter valued at about $218,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.76, for a total value of $635,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,442,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $109,336,467.84. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 20.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on SLP. BTIG Research decreased their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com lowered Simulations Plus from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Stephens assumed coverage on Simulations Plus in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $39.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Simulations Plus presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $51.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SLP traded down $0.05 on Tuesday, hitting $27.89. The stock had a trading volume of 139,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 142,719. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $30.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.69. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.07 and a 1 year high of $51.22. The stock has a market cap of $560.17 million, a P/E ratio of 56.92 and a beta of 0.76.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. Simulations Plus had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 14.15%. The business had revenue of $18.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.73 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.18 earnings per share. Simulations Plus's revenue for the quarter was up 19.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

Simulations Plus Profile

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.