Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Research Coverage Started at DA Davidson

DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) in a report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on VERX. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC lifted 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. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.36.

Vertex Price Performance

NASDAQ:VERX opened at $53.20 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.37. Vertex has a 52 week low of $23.31 and a 52 week high of $57.74. The stock has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a PE ratio of 295.56, 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.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The company 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 company earned $0.06 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 52,713 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were 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 approximately $46,967,612.86. The trade was a 4.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total value of $134,525.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,535 shares in the company, valued at $835,938.35. The trade was a 13.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,782,563 shares of company stock valued at $187,627,746 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the second quarter worth about $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Vertex by 40.1% during the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after buying an additional 414,945 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in Vertex by 36.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,447,000 after buying an additional 363,595 shares during the period. 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.