Stifel Nicolaus Issues Positive Forecast for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock Price

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its target price increased by Stifel Nicolaus from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.

VERX has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Citigroup increased their price target on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.70.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of Vertex stock opened at $53.53 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a PE ratio of 297.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a 50 day moving average of $49.45 and a 200-day moving average of $41.20. Vertex has a 1-year low of $23.31 and a 1-year high of $57.74.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 52,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.02, for a total transaction of $2,162,287.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,144,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,967,612.86. This trade represents a 4.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total value of $30,480,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $418,513.95. This trade represents a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,007,563 shares of company stock worth $235,917,246. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VERX. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its holdings in Vertex by 29.4% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 933,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,932,000 after purchasing an additional 211,896 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vertex by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,690,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,444,000 after buying an additional 253,263 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in Vertex in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,354,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Vertex by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,121,000 after buying an additional 37,592 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 5.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 582,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,424,000 after acquiring an additional 29,700 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Company Profile

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.