Short Interest in Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) Grows By 7.4%

Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,670,000 shares, a growth of 7.4% from the March 15th total of 5,280,000 shares. Currently, 5.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 550,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 10.3 days.

Insider Transactions at Certara

In related news, SVP Richard M. Traynor sold 3,000 shares of Certara stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total transaction of $54,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 173,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,123,432. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Certara news, SVP Richard M. Traynor sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total value of $54,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 173,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,123,432. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard M. Traynor sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 165,368 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,976,624. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,427 shares of company stock worth $405,095 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Certara

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Certara by 157.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,796,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,743,000 after purchasing an additional 9,055,874 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Certara by 6.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,652,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,466,000 after acquiring an additional 626,267 shares in the last quarter. Mubadala Investment Co PJSC bought a new position in Certara during the fourth quarter worth $169,135,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Certara by 1.1% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 7,150,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,974,000 after acquiring an additional 77,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Certara by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,140,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,829,000 after acquiring an additional 10,429 shares in the last quarter. 73.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on CERT shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Certara from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Certara from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Certara from $14.00 to $15.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Certara in a report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, SVB Leerink started coverage on shares of Certara in a report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.06.

Certara Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CERT traded down $0.37 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $17.07. The stock had a trading volume of 364,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 543,301. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $17.86 and its 200 day moving average is $16.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a current ratio of 2.62. Certara has a 52 week low of $11.81 and a 52 week high of $24.96. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.63.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.04). Certara had a negative net margin of 15.62% and a positive return on equity of 4.33%. The firm had revenue of $88.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.80 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Certara will post 0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Certara Company Profile

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.