ePlus inc. $PLUS Shares Purchased by Polaris Capital Management LLC

Polaris Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,600 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Polaris Capital Management LLC owned about 0.12% of ePlus worth $2,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLUS. Quarry LP increased its holdings in ePlus by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 632 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in ePlus by 377.9% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 712 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in ePlus by 625.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,023 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 882 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in ePlus by 34.1% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,503 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the period. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in ePlus by 628.3% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,066 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $187,000 after buying an additional 2,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ePlus in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of ePlus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

ePlus Trading Up 0.3%

ePlus stock opened at $73.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.87. ePlus inc. has a 12-month low of $53.83 and a 12-month high of $106.98.

ePlus Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 26th. ePlus’s payout ratio is 22.42%.

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.