River Road Asset Management LLC Has $122.79 Million Holdings in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 19.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,537,959 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 379,367 shares during the quarter. ePlus makes up about 1.7% of River Road Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. River Road Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.06% of ePlus worth $122,791,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of ePlus during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ePlus in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Operose Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of ePlus in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Point72 Middle East FZE bought a new position in shares of ePlus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in ePlus by 862.6% during the second quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 953 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other ePlus news, Director John E. Callies sold 1,308 shares of ePlus stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.17, for a total value of $103,554.36. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,493 shares in the company, valued at $1,622,430.81. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on PLUS. Sidoti downgraded shares of ePlus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of ePlus from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday.

ePlus Stock Performance

ePlus stock traded down $1.18 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $75.43. The stock had a trading volume of 167,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 212,164. 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 52-week low of $41.71 and a 52-week high of $83.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $78.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.81. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 16.16 and a beta of 1.18.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $509.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $598.25 million. ePlus had a net margin of 5.86% and a return on equity of 15.26%. On average, research analysts forecast that ePlus inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

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 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.