ePlus heads into its May 22 earnings report with short sellers quietly retreating and options traders more relaxed than they've been in months — a notable shift after a choppy April.
The clearest signal this week is in short interest, and it points to a pullback in bearish conviction. Short interest has fallen 6.5% over the past week to 4.4% of the free float — roughly 1.15 million shares. The retreat has been steady: from a local peak above 1.25 million shares in early April, shorts have unwound in five of the last seven sessions. Days to cover runs at 8 days per the latest FINRA fortnightly data, meaningful for a stock of this size, but the directional drift matters more than the absolute level. The ORTEX short score has dropped from 45.6 on April 16 to 43.8 now — still middling in the overall universe, but trending softer.
The borrow picture reinforces that story, though with a slight twist. Availability is effectively unconstrained — the cost to borrow has edged up 36% over the week to 0.54%, but that remains historically low in absolute terms and reflects thin demand for borrows rather than any squeeze pressure. The lending pool for PLUS is loose; this is a market where shorts are choosing to leave, not being forced out. Options traders are leaning the same way. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.52, about 1.2 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.57. That's closer to the one-year low of 0.06 than the high of 1.09, and it reflects a notably call-skewed posture heading into the print.
The stock itself closed at $83.24, down about 3% on the week but up 11% over the past month — a strong recovery from the tariff-driven April dislocation. Analyst coverage remains sparse and the most recent formal target adjustments are too dated to carry weight here. The mean price target on record is $115, implying substantial upside to current levels, but that figure dates to March 2026 from limited coverage and should be treated with caution. What is current: Zacks upgraded PLUS to Strong Buy in early April, and the stock's EPS surprise factor rank of 84 points to a consistent pattern of beating estimates. The dividend score of 85 is eye-catching but ePlus hasn't paid a regular dividend since 2012 — that rank likely reflects capital return optionality rather than an active yield story.
Among institutional holders, BlackRock added 38,822 shares in Q1 to reach a 15.2% stake, while Vanguard nudged up by 10,462 shares. Neither is a dramatic move, but both of the two largest holders were net buyers, not trimmers. Silvercrest and Wellington trimmed modestly in Q4 2025. The most recent insider data shows COO Darren Raiguel selling a small number of shares in February — transactions under $30,000 in aggregate, low significance. The real insider selling cluster was in June 2025 when the CEO, CFO, and COO all sold simultaneously at $68.94. The stock has since rallied more than 20% above those sale prices.
With Q4 FY2026 results due May 22, CNXN — a close peer in the technology distribution space — has drifted down 2.1% on the week, roughly in line with PLUS, while SANM surged 18.4% after its own results. Historically, PLUS has shown muted post-earnings moves: the last two prints produced a +3.2% and a -0.4% next-day reaction respectively. Whether the company's memory optimization and chip shortage advisory services — flagged in an April 15 product launch — translate into a guidance upgrade is the question the market is circling ahead of May 22.
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