Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Certara (NASDAQ:CERT)

Equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set an “equal weight” rating and a $16.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 41.22% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Certara in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Barclays raised Certara from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Certara from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Certara from $9.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Certara presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.71.

Certara Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of Certara stock opened at $11.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.78, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Certara has a 12 month low of $8.64 and a 12 month high of $16.93. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.85. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a PE ratio of -566.50 and a beta of 1.43.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.04. Certara had a positive return on equity of 5.05% and a negative net margin of 0.67%. The business had revenue of $106.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $104.44 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Certara will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Certara

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Certara in the fourth quarter valued at about $140,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Certara in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,628,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Certara in the fourth quarter valued at about $148,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Certara by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 877,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,340,000 after purchasing an additional 108,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Certara by 3.9% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 59,721 shares of the company’s stock valued at $591,000 after purchasing an additional 2,268 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.