ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Upgraded at StockNews.com

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

ePlus Stock Up 1.6 %

PLUS stock opened at $98.05 on Tuesday. ePlus has a 12 month low of $53.53 and a 12 month high of $102.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $90.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.48.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.03). ePlus had a net margin of 4.98% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The business had revenue of $544.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $555.23 million. Sell-side analysts expect that ePlus will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 64,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,940,907.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ePlus

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gobi Capital LLC purchased a new position in ePlus during the fourth quarter worth about $49,190,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ePlus by 4,036.0% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 251,430 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $18,525,000 after buying an additional 245,351 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 75.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 487,069 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,887,000 after buying an additional 209,511 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of ePlus in the first quarter valued at approximately $15,315,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in ePlus during the second quarter worth $4,740,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

About ePlus

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.