ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Sets New 52-Week High at $97.33

Shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $97.33 and last traded at $97.33, with a volume of 20441 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $95.20.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on PLUS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of ePlus from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. StockNews.com lowered ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th.

ePlus Trading Up 2.5 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.99, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $88.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $80.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.87.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at ePlus

In other news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in ePlus by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 383,864 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $30,648,000 after acquiring an additional 9,162 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ePlus during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in ePlus by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 15,418 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,231,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the period. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC increased its holdings in ePlus by 54.6% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 17,964 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,434,000 after buying an additional 6,346 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.