ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) Shares Sold by River Road Asset Management LLC

River Road Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 19.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,537,959 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 379,367 shares during the quarter. ePlus makes up 1.7% of River Road Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. River Road Asset Management LLC owned about 5.72% of ePlus worth $122,791,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in ePlus by 832.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 14,412 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $915,000 after acquiring an additional 12,866 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in ePlus by 4,840.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 286,975 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $18,229,000 after acquiring an additional 281,166 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,074,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of ePlus by 33.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 8,424 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of ePlus by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,376,006 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $150,924,000 after buying an additional 32,353 shares in the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at ePlus

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

ePlus Price Performance

Shares of PLUS traded down $1.18 on Wednesday, reaching $75.43. The stock had a trading volume of 167,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 212,164. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 16.16 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $78.17 and a 200 day moving average of $72.81. ePlus inc. has a twelve month low of $41.71 and a twelve month high of $83.57.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $509.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $598.25 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 15.26% and a net margin of 5.86%. Sell-side analysts expect that ePlus inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Sidoti downgraded ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on ePlus from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday.

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 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.