Polaris Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Position in ePlus inc. $PLUS

Polaris Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ePlus inc. (NASDAQ:PLUS) by 10.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,600 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Polaris Capital Management LLC’s holdings in ePlus were worth $2,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PLUS. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in ePlus by 44,179.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 62,434 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,810,000 after acquiring an additional 62,293 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in ePlus by 17.4% in the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 22,940 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,400,000 after acquiring an additional 3,397 shares during the last quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC lifted its position in ePlus by 30.1% in the first quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 47,182 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,880,000 after acquiring an additional 10,910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in ePlus by 39.0% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 7,844 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $479,000 after acquiring an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ePlus Stock Performance

NASDAQ PLUS opened at $73.10 on Friday. ePlus inc. has a one year low of $53.83 and a one year high of $106.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $71.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.87. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a PE ratio of 16.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.15.

ePlus Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PLUS shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ePlus in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ePlus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ePlus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ePlus presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.