Russell Investments Group Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 16.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 179,231 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 35,753 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.89% of Simulations Plus worth $4,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings in Simulations Plus by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 41,161 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,148,000 after buying an additional 5,704 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. increased its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 7,310 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Simulations Plus by 210.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 147,154 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,104,000 after purchasing an additional 99,789 shares during the period. Summitry LLC purchased a new position in Simulations Plus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,385,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in Simulations Plus during the fourth quarter valued at $230,000. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Simulations Plus

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 3,402,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $115,381,623.44. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 19.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SLP shares. StockNews.com cut Simulations Plus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Simulations Plus from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Up 4.6 %

SLP stock opened at $34.16 on Tuesday. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.01 and a twelve month high of $51.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $686.99 million, a PE ratio of 85.40 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.04.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The technology company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.06. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 10.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The company had revenue of $22.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.93 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. Simulations Plus’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simulations Plus Company 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.