Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Trims Stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund reduced its position in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,969 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 659 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in ePlus were worth $1,195,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 832.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 14,412 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $915,000 after purchasing an additional 12,866 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 4,840.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 286,975 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $18,229,000 after purchasing an additional 281,166 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,074,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 33.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 8,424 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $535,000 after purchasing an additional 2,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,376,006 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $150,924,000 after purchasing an additional 32,353 shares in the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PLUS. Sidoti cut ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on ePlus from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th.

ePlus Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ PLUS opened at $78.19 on Friday. ePlus inc. has a 1-year low of $41.71 and a 1-year high of $83.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $78.41 and a 200-day moving average of $73.47. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a PE ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 1.18.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by ($0.22). ePlus had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 15.26%. The company had revenue of $509.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $598.25 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ePlus inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John E. Callies sold 1,308 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.17, for a total value of $103,554.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,622,430.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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 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.