ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Shares Gap Up After Dividend Announcement

ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The stock had previously closed at $63.30, but opened at $68.45. ePlus shares last traded at $69.72, with a volume of 72,386 shares.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 26th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th.

ePlus Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.25.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) 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. The business had revenue of $498.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $523.85 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.20% and a net margin of 5.47%. As a group, analysts expect that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of ePlus

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in ePlus during the 2nd quarter worth about $274,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 7.3% during the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 6,763 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $488,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 7.6% during the second quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 6,027 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ePlus during the second quarter worth about $440,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 2.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 671,943 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $48,453,000 after purchasing an additional 16,804 shares during the period. 93.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.