Argent Capital Management LLC Acquires 1,919 Shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Argent Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 15.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,602 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,919 shares during the period. Argent Capital Management LLC owned 0.05% of ePlus worth $1,436,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLUS. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in ePlus during the 1st quarter valued at $1,903,000. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in ePlus by 349.0% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 16,165 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after buying an additional 12,565 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of ePlus by 100.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 40,552 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,185,000 after acquiring an additional 20,340 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake 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 valued at $5,073,000 after acquiring an additional 26,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in ePlus by 1.2% in the fourth 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. 93.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ePlus news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.19, for a total transaction of $460,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 64,442 shares in the company, valued at $5,940,907.98. This trade 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 at the SEC website. 2.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ePlus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PLUS traded up $0.14 during trading on Thursday, reaching $97.73. 33,522 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 188,094. The firm has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a PE ratio of 22.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. ePlus inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.53 and a fifty-two week high of $102.99.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $555.23 million. As a group, analysts predict that ePlus inc. will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

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 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.