Argent Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Argent Capital Management LLC boosted its position in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 60.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,683 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 4,802 shares during the period. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in ePlus were worth $934,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gobi Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ePlus in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,190,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in ePlus in the first quarter worth $15,315,000. Lumbard & Kellner LLC acquired a new stake in ePlus in the first quarter valued at $2,459,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of ePlus by 1.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of ePlus by 68.0% during the 1st 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 period. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at ePlus

In related news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.45, for a total transaction of $367,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 53,996 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,966,006.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target 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 Price Performance

Shares of ePlus stock traded up $4.01 on Friday, hitting $95.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 163,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 200,278. The company has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.09. ePlus inc. has a 52-week low of $53.53 and a 52-week high of $96.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $81.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $79.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.26). The business had revenue of $554.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $553.05 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 5.20%. On average, equities research analysts expect that ePlus inc. will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ePlus 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.