Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $60.00 target price on the stock.

VERX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.82.

Vertex Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of VERX stock opened at $36.16 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a PE ratio of 200.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $46.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.40. 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 has a 12-month low of $27.22 and a 12-month high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.90 million. As a group, analysts predict that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,428,435.36. This represents a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Vertex by 342.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,513,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171,576 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Vertex in the 4th quarter worth about $61,825,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Vertex by 233.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 851,127 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,409,000 after purchasing an additional 596,077 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Vertex by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,868,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,031,000 after purchasing an additional 580,664 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the third quarter valued at approximately $20,938,000. 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.