PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 35.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,029 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in ePlus were worth $307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in ePlus by 1.6% in the first quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,264 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $993,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Vista Finance LLC boosted its holdings in ePlus by 7.8% in the first quarter. Vista Finance LLC now owns 4,606 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in ePlus by 1,000.0% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 473 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in ePlus by 377.9% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 712 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the period. Finally, Mariner LLC boosted its holdings in ePlus by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 9,431 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $697,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the period. 93.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

ePlus Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ:PLUS opened at $73.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a PE ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $69.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.99. ePlus inc. has a 12-month low of $53.83 and a 12-month high of $106.98.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last announced 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 company had revenue of $498.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $523.85 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 5.47%. Equities analysts forecast that ePlus inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

ePlus Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th.

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 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.