Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $54.70.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on VERX shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of VERX stock opened at $53.53 on Monday. Vertex has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $57.74. 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 market capitalization of $8.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 297.39, a PEG ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.20.

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

Insider Activity at Vertex

In other Vertex news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total transaction of $134,525.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,938.35. This trade represents a 13.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $48,289,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,220.90. This represents a 99.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,007,563 shares of company stock worth $235,917,246 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 126.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the second quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the second quarter valued at about $68,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.