Head to Head Comparison: Simulations Plus (SLP) vs. Its Rivals

Simulations Plus (NASDAQ:SLP) is one of 109 public companies in the “Life Sciences Tools & Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Simulations Plus to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.1% of Simulations Plus shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.7% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 19.1% of Simulations Plus shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Simulations Plus and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Simulations Plus	1	5	0	0	1.83
Simulations Plus Competitors	948	3170	5495	178	2.50

Simulations Plus presently has a consensus target price of $17.25, suggesting a potential downside of 6.76%. As a group, “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies have a potential downside of 0.76%. Given Simulations Plus’ peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Simulations Plus has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Simulations Plus and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Simulations Plus	9.88%	13.50%	12.45%
Simulations Plus Competitors	-540.60%	-166.50%	-13.58%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Simulations Plus and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Simulations Plus	$82.06 million	-$64.72 million	46.25
Simulations Plus Competitors	$2.29 billion	$55.88 billion	-13.64

Simulations Plus’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Simulations Plus. Simulations Plus is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Simulations Plus pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Simulations Plus pays out 60.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.5% and pay out 44.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Simulations Plus lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

Simulations Plus has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Simulations Plus’ peers have a beta of 1.15, suggesting that their average share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Simulations Plus peers beat Simulations Plus on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The company also provides products based on mechanistic and mathematical models, such as DILIsym, NAFLDsym, ILDsym, RENAsym, IPFsym, and MITOsym products. In addition, it offers Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity Predictor for chemistry-based computer program that takes molecular structures as inputs and predicts their properties; and MedChem Designer, as well as MonolixSuite products for modeling and simulation that allows for population analyses, rapid clinical trial data analyses, and regulatory submissions. Further, the company provides clinical-pharmacology-based consulting services, which includes population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling, exposure-response analyses, clinical trial simulations, data programming, and technical writing services in support of regulatory submissions; and early drug discovery services. Additionally, it offers creative and insightful consulting services to support its quantitative systems pharmacology/quantitative systems toxicology modelling. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical, cosmetics, and food industry companies, as well as academic and regulatory agencies. Simulations Plus, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Lancaster, California.