Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Buys 14,871 Shares of Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its stake in Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLP) by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,500 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,871 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.46% of Simulations Plus worth $2,552,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,226,262 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $62,090,000 after purchasing an additional 290,414 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 640,303 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,503,000 after purchasing an additional 28,953 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 4.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 448,618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,367,000 after purchasing an additional 18,924 shares in the last quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 396,093 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,047,000 after purchasing an additional 70,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP grew its stake in Simulations Plus by 28.8% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 237,416 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,602,000 after purchasing an additional 53,092 shares in the last quarter. 78.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SLP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Simulations Plus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Stephens initiated coverage on Simulations Plus in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $39.00 price objective for the company. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Simulations Plus in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Simulations Plus from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, BTIG Research cut their price objective on Simulations Plus from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.40.

Simulations Plus Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ:SLP opened at $35.99 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $723.04 million, a P/E ratio of 89.98 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.19. Simulations Plus, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.00 and a 1-year high of $51.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Simulations Plus news, Director Walter S. Woltosz sold 20,000 shares of Simulations Plus stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.91, for a total value of $678,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,402,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,381,623.44. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 19.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Simulations Plus

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.