ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $102.76 and last traded at $101.05, with a volume of 11302 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $101.67.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

ePlus Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.55, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $93.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.01.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.03). ePlus had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 4.98%. The firm had revenue of $544.54 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $555.23 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ePlus inc. will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.19, for a total transaction of $460,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 64,442 shares in the company, valued at $5,940,907.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ePlus

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PLUS. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus during the first quarter valued at $1,903,000. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in shares of ePlus by 349.0% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 16,165 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after acquiring an additional 12,565 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in ePlus by 100.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 40,552 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,185,000 after purchasing an additional 20,340 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of ePlus by 68.0% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 64,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,073,000 after buying an additional 26,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 27,582 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

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.