ePlus inc. $PLUS Shares Bought by River Road Asset Management LLC

River Road Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 17.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,624,923 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 238,070 shares during the quarter. ePlus accounts for approximately 1.5% of River Road Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. River Road Asset Management LLC owned 6.10% of ePlus worth $117,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of ePlus in the 1st quarter valued at about $293,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in ePlus during the first quarter valued at approximately $309,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in ePlus by 35.5% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,029 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares during the period. Phocas Financial Corp. lifted its holdings in ePlus by 61.7% in the first quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 68,642 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,189,000 after acquiring an additional 26,203 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in ePlus by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,448,514 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $149,433,000 after purchasing an additional 11,051 shares in the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ePlus Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of ePlus stock opened at $89.60 on Monday. ePlus inc. has a twelve month low of $53.83 and a twelve month high of $93.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 20.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $78.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.06.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The software maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $608.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $518.30 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 5.47%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ePlus Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 25th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 25th. ePlus’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PLUS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ePlus in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 21st. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy”.

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.