Lumbard & Kellner LLC Sells 4,368 Shares of ePlus inc. $PLUS

Lumbard & Kellner LLC decreased its holdings in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,970 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 4,368 shares during the period. Lumbard & Kellner LLC’s holdings in ePlus were worth $1,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ePlus by 17.2% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,624,923 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $117,157,000 after buying an additional 238,070 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in ePlus by 116.7% during the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 325,000 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $19,835,000 after acquiring an additional 175,000 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in ePlus by 103.1% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 226,399 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,817,000 after purchasing an additional 114,900 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in ePlus by 1,986.6% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 103,348 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,307,000 after purchasing an additional 98,395 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of ePlus by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 865,318 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $52,810,000 after purchasing an additional 74,986 shares during the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ePlus Price Performance

NASDAQ:PLUS opened at $89.60 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $78.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.06. ePlus inc. has a one year low of $53.83 and a one year high of $93.37.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The software maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.58. ePlus had a net margin of 5.47% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The business had revenue of $608.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $518.30 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

ePlus Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. 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 (DPR) is presently 21.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ePlus in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

ePlus 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.