Cresset Asset Management LLC Increases Position in ePlus inc. $PLUS

Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 50.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,483 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,198 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC owned 0.10% of ePlus worth $1,982,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in ePlus during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,581,000. Bridge City Capital LLC boosted its position in ePlus by 13.6% in the second quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 53,615 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,866,000 after buying an additional 6,433 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in ePlus by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,624,923 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $117,157,000 after buying an additional 238,070 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in ePlus during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $544,000. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in ePlus during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $67,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, September 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ePlus in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

ePlus Price Performance

PLUS opened at $89.28 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $79.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.00. ePlus inc. has a 1 year low of $53.83 and a 1 year high of $93.37. The stock has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.01.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The software maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $608.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $518.30 million. ePlus had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 11.44%. Equities analysts expect that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

ePlus Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 25th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 25th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. ePlus’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.69%.

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.