Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Buys 720 Shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 14.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,612 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in ePlus were worth $448,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PLUS. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 12,866 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 281,166 shares in the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP raised its holdings 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 valued at $535,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $150,924,000 after buying an additional 32,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of ePlus during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,078,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

ePlus Price Performance

PLUS opened at $76.96 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.59. ePlus inc. has a 1 year low of $41.71 and a 1 year high of $83.57. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.24 and a beta of 1.17.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $509.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $598.25 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 15.26% and a net margin of 5.86%. As a group, analysts predict that ePlus inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity 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 sale, the director now directly owns 20,493 shares in the company, valued at $1,622,430.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PLUS shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on ePlus from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Sidoti lowered ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th.

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.