ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Shares Up 4.7% Following Better-Than-Expected Earnings

ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 4.7% during trading on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $71.35 and last traded at $68.75. Approximately 45,216 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 210,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.69.

The software maker reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $498.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $523.85 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 4.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wall Street Zen raised shares of ePlus from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ePlus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PLUS. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $127,898,000. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in shares of ePlus during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,517,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. bought a new stake in ePlus in the 4th quarter valued at $15,590,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in ePlus in the 4th quarter valued at $11,082,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in ePlus by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 790,332 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $58,390,000 after purchasing an additional 121,945 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.80% of the company's stock.

ePlus Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $62.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.12.

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 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.