Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Position in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 140,320 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 4,963 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.52% of ePlus worth $11,203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in ePlus in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Operose Advisors LLC purchased a new position in ePlus in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in ePlus in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $98,000. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Finally, Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Darren S. Raiguel sold 4,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.37, for a total transaction of $388,428.21. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 33,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,675,517.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on ePlus from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday.

ePlus Stock Performance

ePlus stock opened at $78.18 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.06 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $77.92 and a 200-day moving average of $75.53. ePlus inc. has a 52 week low of $48.05 and a 52 week high of $83.57.

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.