Welcome to the Simulations Plus Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I am Shawn O'Connor, CEO of Simulations Plus, and I'll be chairing the proceedings today. We're holding our annual shareholders meeting in a virtual format today. In doing so, we strive to make the meeting as inclusive as possible, offering similar opportunities to participate as provided in in-person meetings. You may vote and electronically submit questions via the online platform while this meeting is in session. We really appreciate your participation today. With me to conduct the meeting is Will Frederick, our CFO and corporate secretary. Now I'd like to call the annual meeting of shareholders to order. As chair of the meeting, I've adopted an agenda that will govern the order of business and the rules of conduct for the meeting. Copies of the agenda are available on the virtual meeting site.
I'll now hand the meeting off to Will to report the notice of the meeting, the proxies received, and present the matters to be voted on. Will?
Thanks, Shawn. The polls are now open for those who have not voted and will close in a few minutes after the presentation of our business matters. If you previously voted by the Internet, phone, or mail, you do not need to take any additional action. If you voted previously and wish to change your vote, please do so before the closing of the polls using the voting buttons via the online portal. After the poll is closed, we will release the preliminary results of the votes. Shareholders wishing to ask a question may do so on the virtual online portal. We will be taking both pre-submitted and live questions during the Q&A session, which will occur at the end of this meeting. We are committed to answering your questions and will address as many as time allows during the Q&A session.
The notice of Internet availability of the proxy materials for this meeting was mailed by Broadridge Financial Solutions beginning December 29, 2025, and went out to all shareholders of record as of the closing of business on December 15, 2025, the record date for this meeting. A supplement to the Proxy Statement went out to all shareholders of record as of the closing of business on February 4, 2026. As a result, the meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice. A list of all shareholders entitled to vote as of the record date has been filed and certified by Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions.
We have received proxies representing 13,229,922 shares, or approximately 66% of the 20,137,480 shares of the company's stock that are eligible to vote. As this is more than a majority of the shares entitled to vote, it means that we do have a quorum present and the meeting is duly constituted and will proceed. Today, we have 4 proposals for you to consider, which are described in the proxy materials previously provided to you for today's meeting. Copies of the company's notice of the annual meeting, proxy statement, and annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 31, 2025, are each available for inspection upon request.
The first item for consideration is the election of four individuals to serve on the company's board until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified, subject to prior death, resignation, or removal. The following four individuals have been properly nominated for election by our board: Dr. Daniel Weiner, Dr. Walter S. Woltosz, Dr. John K. Paglia, and Sharlene Evans. The board recommends a vote for each nominee. The second item for consideration is the ratification of the selection of Rose, Snyder & Jacobs LLP, or RSJ, as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2026. The board recommends a vote for this proposal. It is important to note that this is an advisory, not binding vote.
However, if our shareholders do not ratify the selection, our audit committee will reconsider whether or not to retain RSJ. Additionally, please note that the audit committee or our board of directors may terminate the appointment of RSJ without the approval of the company's shareholders whenever the audit committee or board deems such termination necessary or appropriate. The third item for consideration is the approval of an amendment to the company's 2021 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended, to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance from 2.5 million shares to 3.45 million shares of the company's common stock. The board recommends a vote for this proposal. The fourth item for consideration is the approval on an advisory, non-binding basis, the frequency of the shareholder advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation.
The board recommends a vote for a frequency period of every three years for future advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers. While this is an advisory, non-binding vote, and we value the opinion of our shareholders, the board may decide that it's in the best interest of our shareholders and the company to hold an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers more or less frequently than the option approved by our shareholders. If you have not already voted or wish to change your vote, please do so now, as we will close the polls in a few moments…. At this time, with the discussion of the items presented for shareholder consideration being completed, the polls are now closed. I'll now share with you the preliminary voting tabulation.
For proposal one, all four director nominees included on the ballot have been elected by a plurality of votes cast. They'll each serve as directors on our board until the company's next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified, subject to prior death, resignation, or removal. The second proposal, ratification of the appointment of RSJ as the company's independent registered public accounting firm, has been approved by over 97% of the shares of common stock voting at the meeting. The third proposal, approval to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance under the 2021 Equity Incentive plan by 950,000 shares, has been approved by over 91% of the shares of common stock voting at the meeting.
The fourth proposal, the non-binding advisory approval of the frequency of the shareholder advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation, has been approved by over 90% of the shares of common stock voting at the meeting for a frequency period of every 1 year. Although this proposal is not binding on the company, the board of directors will take the recommendation into account in determining how frequently to submit named executive compensation for stockholder approval on a non-binding advisory basis going forward. We'll be reporting the final voting results in a current report on Form 8-K that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of today's date, and no later than February 19, 2026. The filing will also be made available on our investor relations website.
With that, we've completed the formal portion of the meeting, so I'll hand it back over to Shawn for the Q&A portion of the meeting. Shawn?
Thanks, Will. Welcome to the Q&A portion of the meeting. Since we didn't receive any questions from shareholders, this concludes today's Q&A session and wraps up our annual shareholders meeting. Thank you again for joining us today and for your support of our proposals. If you have any further questions, please visit our investor relations website. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.