Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Receives $51.00 Average PT from Brokerages

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $50.00.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday.

Vertex Price Performance

Vertex stock opened at $32.12 on Friday. Vertex has a 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $60.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $52.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.87. The company has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 178.44, a PEG ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.78.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. Sell-side analysts predict that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $418,513.95. This represents a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David Destefano sold 216,268 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.04, for a total value of $11,903,390.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 293,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,145,708.80. This trade represents a 42.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 858,457 shares of company stock valued at $46,160,958 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairman Group LLC bought a new position in Vertex during the 4th quarter valued at $327,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth about $3,363,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Vertex by 406.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 27,602 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Vertex in the 3rd quarter valued at about $840,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new position in shares of Vertex during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,135,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% 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.