Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,844,266 shares, an increase of 59.7% from the July 15th total of 1,780,772 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 542,524 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days. Currently, 17.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SLP. William Blair lowered Simulations Plus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Wall Street Zen cut Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Simulations Plus from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum cut shares of Simulations Plus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $18.50 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $17.25.

Simulations Plus Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:SLP opened at $18.37 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $371.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.92 and a beta of 1.32. Simulations Plus has a 12-month low of $11.09 and a 12-month high of $21.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $18.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.27.

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.07. Simulations Plus had a net margin of 9.88% and a return on equity of 13.50%. The company had revenue of $21.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.90 million.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 4,177 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $77,023.88. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,202,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,047,295.64. This trade represents a 0.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Simulations Plus

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Simulations Plus by 4.3% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 9,493 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 26.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,831 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 585 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Simulations Plus by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 63,592 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $752,000 after buying an additional 844 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 15,825 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Simulations Plus by 5.7% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 17,213 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $300,000 after buying an additional 930 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.08% of the company’s stock.

Simulations Plus Company Profile

Simulations Plus, Inc (NASDAQ: SLP) specializes in advanced modeling and simulation software tailored to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. The company’s flagship products include ADMET Predictor, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) tool for predicting absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity properties, and GastroPlus, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling platform for simulating drug absorption and pharmacokinetics.