Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Holdings in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 13,500 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,078,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned about 0.05% of ePlus at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in ePlus in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of ePlus in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of ePlus during the 3rd quarter valued at $98,000. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in ePlus during the fourth quarter worth $219,000. Finally, AlphaQ Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ePlus in the fourth quarter worth $253,000. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at ePlus

In related news, Director John E. Callies sold 1,308 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 20,493 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,622,430.81. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 2.41% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PLUS shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of ePlus from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Sidoti downgraded ePlus from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th.

ePlus Stock Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ PLUS traded down $1.08 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $79.03. The company's stock had a trading volume of 237,108 shares, compared to its average volume of 210,732. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.90 and a beta of 1.18. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $78.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. ePlus inc. has a twelve month low of $41.71 and a twelve month high of $83.57.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.24 by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $509.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $598.25 million. ePlus had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 15.26%. Analysts anticipate that ePlus inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

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 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.