Marshall Wace LLP Has $2.85 Million Holdings in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP - Free Report) by 116.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 102,077 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 54,858 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned about 0.51% of Simulations Plus worth $2,847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SLP. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,223 shares of the technology company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in Simulations Plus by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 7,310 shares of the technology company's stock worth $204,000 after buying an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,687 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $159,000 after buying an additional 713 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 29,229 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $815,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 7.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 10,797 shares of the technology company's stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares during the last quarter. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.91, for a total transaction of $678,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,402,584 shares in the company, valued at $115,381,623.44. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 19.40% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SLP shares. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Simulations Plus from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Simulations Plus from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SLP opened at $35.50 on Friday. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $28.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.26. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.01 and a 52 week high of $51.22. The firm has a market cap of $713.94 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.75 and a beta of 1.13.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.93 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 10.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share 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.

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