Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) saw a large drop in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,400,000 shares, a drop of 15.7% from the May 31st total of 5,220,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 576,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.6 days. Currently, 4.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Certara from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $23.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Certara from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Certara in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.81.

Certara Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of CERT traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $13.64. 665,945 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 567,172. Certara has a 12-month low of $11.81 and a 12-month high of $19.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $15.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.86. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.97, a PEG ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 3.26, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $96.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.48 million. Certara had a positive return on equity of 4.08% and a negative net margin of 17.02%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Certara will post 0.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Certara news, insider Patrick F. Smith sold 14,427 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.85, for a total transaction of $243,094.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $844,033.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Certara

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CERT. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new position in Certara in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Certara by 5,306.3% during the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698 shares in the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Certara during the first quarter valued at about $47,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Certara by 13.4% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 15,136 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 1,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Certara by 1,704.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,754 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 12,047 shares in the last quarter. 73.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.