ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) PT Raised to $80.00

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) had its price target upped by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “hold” rating on the software maker’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.43% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Sidoti downgraded ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th.

ePlus Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PLUS opened at $76.61 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 16.16 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. ePlus has a 12-month low of $41.71 and a 12-month high of $83.57. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.81.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $509.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $598.25 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 15.26% and a net margin of 5.86%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that ePlus will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at ePlus

In other ePlus news, Director John E. Callies sold 1,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.17, for a total value of $103,554.36. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,622,430.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ePlus

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PLUS. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 55.5% in the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 2,225 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $130,000 after purchasing an additional 794 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 8.6% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 23,709 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,871 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 188.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,374 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 2,859 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 34.6% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 13,462 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $755,000 after purchasing an additional 3,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 13.5% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 23,179 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,299,000 after purchasing an additional 2,760 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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 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.