Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) Reaches New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Certara, Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT)’s share price hit a new 52-week low on Saturday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $16.00 to $14.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Certara traded as low as $8.47 and last traded at $8.67, with a volume of 9104388 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.27.

A number of other research firms have also commented on CERT. Zacks Research upgraded Certara from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Certara from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Certara in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Certara from $17.50 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Craig Hallum started coverage on shares of Certara in a research note on Monday, September 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Leif E. Pedersen sold 51,224 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.92, for a total transaction of $559,366.08. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 73,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,850.68. This represents a 40.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Certara

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Certara by 4.5% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 916,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,071,000 after acquiring an additional 39,289 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Certara during the first quarter worth approximately $297,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Certara by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 543,958 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,385,000 after purchasing an additional 12,513 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Certara in the 1st quarter valued at $238,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Certara by 23.5% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 511,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,061,000 after purchasing an additional 97,179 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.96% of the company’s stock.

Certara Stock Down 23.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.49. The firm has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 123.86 and a beta of 1.44.

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.03. Certara had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 5.17%. The company had revenue of $104.62 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $104.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. Certara has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.450-0.470 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Certara, Inc. will post 0.28 EPS 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.