Raymond James Reiterates Market Perform Rating for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)

Raymond James reaffirmed their market perform rating on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. DA Davidson began coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.36.

Vertex Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $51.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a PE ratio of 285.11, a P/E/G ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $51.64 and a 200-day moving average of $42.54. Vertex has a 52-week low of $23.31 and a 52-week high of $57.74.

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

Insider Activity at Vertex

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $735,764.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,344,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,136,288.02. The trade was a 0.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 49,114 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.31, for a total value of $2,028,899.34. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,067,852 shares in the company, valued at $44,112,966.12. This trade represents a 4.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,729,850 shares of company stock valued at $185,465,458. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex during the third quarter valued at approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 787.0% during the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,280,000 after purchasing an additional 465,610 shares during the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Vertex by 40.1% during the 3rd 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. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 36.4% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is 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.