ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 634,000 shares, a decrease of 25.4% from the May 15th total of 850,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 211,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Darren S. Raiguel sold 4,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.37, for a total transaction of $388,428.21. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 33,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,675,517.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ePlus

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PLUS. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in ePlus by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 59,056 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,751,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of ePlus by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 374,702 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $23,801,000 after acquiring an additional 7,516 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of ePlus by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 83,613 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,311,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of ePlus during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $98,000. Finally, Aviva PLC bought a new position in shares of ePlus during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $590,000. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of ePlus from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd.

ePlus Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of PLUS stock traded down $0.78 on Friday, reaching $72.68. The company had a trading volume of 125,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 211,739. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a PE ratio of 16.79 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $77.08 and a 200-day moving average of $76.85. ePlus has a 12 month low of $53.19 and a 12 month high of $83.57.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.26). ePlus had a net margin of 5.20% and a return on equity of 13.47%. The company had revenue of $554.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $553.05 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that ePlus will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current year.

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 in two segments, Technology and Financing. The Technology segment offers hardware, perpetual and subscription software, maintenance, software assurance, and internally provided and outsourced services; and professional and managed services, including managed, professional, security solutions, cloud consulting and hosting, staff augmentation, storage-as-a-service, server and desktop support, and project management services.