ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

ePlus Price Performance

PLUS stock opened at $89.13 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.85, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $95.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.17. ePlus has a 52-week low of $53.53 and a 52-week high of $102.99.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.03). ePlus had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 4.98%. The company had revenue of $544.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $555.23 million. Equities research analysts forecast that ePlus will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at ePlus

In other news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.19, for a total value of $460,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 64,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,940,907.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in ePlus in the 1st quarter worth about $1,903,000. LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in shares of ePlus by 349.0% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 16,165 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 12,565 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in ePlus by 100.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 40,552 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,185,000 after purchasing an additional 20,340 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in ePlus by 68.0% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 64,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,073,000 after purchasing an additional 26,143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in ePlus by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,403,588 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $191,902,000 after purchasing an additional 27,582 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

ePlus Company Profile

ePlus inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) solutions that enable organizations to optimize their IT environment and supply chain processes in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Technology and Financing. The Technology segment offers hardware, perpetual and subscription software, maintenance, software assurance, and internally provided and outsourced services; managed services or infrastructure and cloud; and enhanced maintenance support, service desk, storage-as-a-service, cloud hosted and managed, and managed security services; and professional, staff augmentation, cloud consulting, consulting, and security services.