ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) Given New $80.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) had its target price raised by Stifel Nicolaus from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the software maker’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti downgraded shares of ePlus from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th.

ePlus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PLUS opened at $76.67 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $78.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.72. ePlus has a 1-year low of $41.71 and a 1-year high of $83.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.18 and a beta of 1.18. 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 (NASDAQ:PLUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.24 by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $509.06 million for 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that ePlus will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PLUS. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of ePlus by 348.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 799,247 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,391,000 after acquiring an additional 620,838 shares during the period. Gobi Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of ePlus during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,190,000. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new position in shares of ePlus during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $17,087,000. FMR LLC grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 281,166 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in shares of ePlus by 517.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 248,764 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,214,000 after acquiring an additional 208,463 shares during the period. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About ePlus

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.