Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 2,226 Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 87,273 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,226 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Simulations Plus were worth $2,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tributary Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 54.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 325,567 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,425,000 after buying an additional 115,122 shares in the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Simulations Plus in the first quarter valued at $4,717,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Simulations Plus by 10.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 414,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,128,000 after acquiring an additional 37,992 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its position in Simulations Plus by 22.5% during the third quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 206,542 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,613,000 after purchasing an additional 37,914 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Simulations Plus during the second quarter worth about $1,320,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Simulations Plus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BTIG Research reduced their price target on shares of Simulations Plus from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Simulations Plus in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $39.00 price objective for the company. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Monday, July 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.40.

Simulations Plus Stock Performance

Shares of SLP stock opened at $31.32 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $628.59 million, a P/E ratio of 64.14 and a beta of 0.71. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.07 and a fifty-two week high of $51.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $30.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.43.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $18.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.73 million. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 14.15% and a return on equity of 6.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.18 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Simulations Plus, Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Simulations Plus

In related news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.66, for a total value of $553,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,462,584 shares in the company, valued at $95,775,073.44. The trade was a 0.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,750 shares of company stock worth $1,905,655. Company insiders own 20.90% of the company’s stock.

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.