Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,960,000 shares, a decrease of 7.5% from the October 31st total of 5,360,000 shares. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CERT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Certara from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Certara from $18.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Certara from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Certara presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.92.

Insider Transactions at Certara

In other news, insider Patrick F. Smith sold 5,409 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.03, for a total transaction of $59,661.27. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,503.73. The trade was a 9.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Leif E. Pedersen sold 51,224 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $578,318.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 99,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,125,658.16. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Certara

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in Certara by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 9,015,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,577,000 after acquiring an additional 1,651,076 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Certara by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 5,510,209 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,525,000 after acquiring an additional 37,392 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Certara by 40.7% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,901,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,691,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128,006 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Certara by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,679,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,089,000 after purchasing an additional 122,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Certara by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,079,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,643,000 after purchasing an additional 273,095 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.96% of the company’s stock.

Certara Price Performance

Shares of CERT stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $11.29. 2,044,888 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 805,984. Certara has a 12-month low of $9.41 and a 12-month high of $19.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market capitalization of $1.82 billion, a PE ratio of -56.45, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 1.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.98.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.02. Certara had a positive return on equity of 3.43% and a negative net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $94.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $95.51 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.06 EPS. Certara’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Certara will post 0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

About Certara

Certara, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software products and technology-enabled services to customers for biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submissions, and market access in the United States and internationally. It offers solutions for model-informed drug development, as well as biosimulation solution used to predict both pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.