David Destefano Sells 159,107 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) CEO David Destefano sold 159,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $7,893,298.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 332,290 shares in the company, valued at $16,484,906.90. This represents a 32.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

David Destefano also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, November 18th, David Destefano sold 22,275 shares of Vertex stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.55, for a total transaction of $1,103,726.25.

Vertex Trading Up 3.7 %

VERX opened at $51.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 284.44, a P/E/G ratio of 9.22 and a beta of 0.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $42.04 and its 200-day moving average is $37.73. Vertex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.31 and a 52-week high of $52.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.06 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Vertex by 4.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,791,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,929,000 after buying an additional 235,407 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 2.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,287,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,102,000 after purchasing an additional 54,985 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 40.1% in the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 414,945 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Vertex by 36.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,447,000 after purchasing an additional 363,595 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 3.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,121,000 after purchasing an additional 37,592 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

About Vertex

Vertex, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides enterprise tax technology solutions for retail trade, wholesale trade, and manufacturing industries in the United States and internationally. The company offers tax determination; compliance and reporting, including workflow management tools, role-based security, and event logging; tax data management; document management; analytics and insights; pre-built integration that includes mapping data fields, and business logic and configurations; industry-specific solutions; and technology specific solutions, such as chain flow accelerator and SAP-specific tools.