Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 11,051 Shares of ePlus inc. $PLUS

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in ePlus inc. by 0.5% during Q1, now owning 9.20% of the company, valued at $149.4 million.
• ePlus reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.95, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.87, but fell short of revenue estimates with $498.1 million reported.
• The company declared a $0.25 quarterly dividend to be paid on September 17th, representing an annualized yield of 1.4%.

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS - Free Report) by 0.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,448,514 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 11,051 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 9.20% of ePlus worth $149,433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of ePlus by 1,000.0% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 473 shares of the software maker's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in ePlus by 377.9% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 712 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in ePlus by 625.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,023 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in ePlus by 2,300.0% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,400 shares of the software maker's stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered ePlus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th.

ePlus Stock Performance

PLUS stock traded down $1.03 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $72.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 68,177 shares, compared to its average volume of 204,458. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.61. ePlus inc. has a 1 year low of $53.83 and a 1 year high of $106.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.14.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 5.47%.The business had revenue of $498.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $523.85 million. As a group, analysts forecast that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ePlus Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%.

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.