Reviewing ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) and Rogers (NYSE:ROG)

Rogers (NYSE:ROG) and ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) are both mid-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Rogers and ePlus, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rogers	0	2	1	0	2.33
ePlus	0	2	0	0	2.00

Rogers currently has a consensus target price of $200.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.02%. Given Rogers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Rogers is more favorable than ePlus.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.0% of Rogers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of ePlus shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Rogers shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of ePlus shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rogers and ePlus”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rogers	$810.80 million	3.22	-$61.80 million	$1.75	83.41
ePlus	$2.44 billion	0.93	$132.64 million	$4.57	18.99

ePlus has higher revenue and earnings than Rogers. ePlus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rogers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Rogers has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ePlus has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Rogers and ePlus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rogers	3.75%	5.17%	4.31%
ePlus	4.91%	11.51%	6.73%

Summary

ePlus beats Rogers on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rogers

Rogers Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of engineered materials and components worldwide. It operates through Advanced Electronics Solutions (AES), Elastomeric Material Solutions (EMS), and Other segments. The AES segment offers circuit materials, ceramic substrate materials, busbars, and cooling solutions for applications in electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEV), wireless infrastructure, automotive, renewable energy, aerospace and defense, mass transit, industrial, connected devices, and wired infrastructure. This segment sells its products under the curamik, ROLINX, RO4000, RO3000, RT/duroid, CLTE Series, TMM, AD Series, DiClad, CuClad Series, Kappa, COOLSPAN, TC Series, IsoClad, MAGTREX, IM, 2929 Bondply, SpeedWave Prepreg, RO4400/RO4400T, and Radix names. The EMS segment provides engineered material solutions, including polyurethane and silicone materials used in cushioning, gasketing, sealing, and vibration management applications; customized silicones used in flex heater and semiconductor thermal applications; and polytetrafluoroethylene and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene materials used in wire and cable protection, electrical insulation, conduction and shielding, hose and belt protection, vibration management, cushioning, gasketing and sealing, and venting applications. This segment sells its products under the PORON, BISCO, DeWAL, ARLON, eSorba, XRD, Silicone Engineering, and R/bak names. The Other segment provides elastomer components; and elastomer floats for level sensing in fuel tanks, motors, and storage tanks for applications in the general industrial and automotive markets under the ENDUR and NITROPHYL names. The company was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona.

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. The Financing segment engages in financing arrangements, such as sales-type and operating leases; loans and consumption-based financing arrangements; and underwriting, management, and disposal of IT equipment and assets. Its financing operations comprise sales, pricing, credit, contracts, accounting, and risk and asset management. This segment primarily finances IT, communication-related, and medical equipment; and industrial machinery and equipment, office furniture and general office equipment, transportation equipment, and other general business equipment directly, as well as through vendors. The company serves commercial entities, state and local governments, government contractors, healthcare, and educational institutions. The company was formerly known as MLC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to ePlus inc. in 1999. ePlus inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.