Swedbank AB Decreases Holdings in ePlus inc. $PLUS

Swedbank AB reduced its holdings in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 15.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 340,000 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 60,000 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in ePlus were worth $25,585,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PLUS. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of ePlus by 361.9% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 448 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in ePlus by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 904 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in ePlus by 856.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,731 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $138,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on PLUS. Weiss Ratings cut shares of ePlus from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ePlus news, COO Darren S. Raiguel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.95, for a total value of $89,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 55,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,014,532.60. The trade was a 1.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 1,289 shares of company stock valued at $115,757 in the last three months. 1.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ePlus Stock Performance

PLUS opened at $85.44 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.04. ePlus inc. has a one year low of $62.11 and a one year high of $93.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.02.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The software maker reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $581.63 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $569.25 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.36% and a net margin of 5.24%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that ePlus inc. will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ePlus Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. This is a positive change from ePlus’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 17th. ePlus’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.31%.

ePlus Profile

ePlus Inc (NASDAQ:PLUS) is a technology solutions provider that helps enterprises and public-sector organizations maximize the value of their information technology investments. The company specializes in designing, implementing and managing complex IT infrastructures, with a focus on security, cloud computing, data center modernization and unified communications. By combining consulting services with software license management and hardware procurement, ePlus delivers end-to-end solutions that align with its clients’ strategic objectives.

The company’s offerings include cybersecurity assessments and managed security services, hybrid and public cloud deployments, network architecture and optimization, and collaboration platforms.