Vertex’s (VERX) “Market Perform” Rating Reiterated at Raymond James

Raymond James reiterated their market perform rating on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on VERX. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. DA Davidson began coverage on Vertex in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective on shares of Vertex in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.36.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of VERX stock opened at $51.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.54. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a PE ratio of 285.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. Vertex has a 52-week low of $23.31 and a 52-week high of $57.74.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its 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. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.06 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $418,513.95. This trade represents a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 46,098 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.48, for a total transaction of $1,866,047.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 989,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,039,780. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,729,850 shares of company stock worth $185,465,458. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Vertex by 545.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 220,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,964,000 after acquiring an additional 186,676 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 13.3% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Vertex by 5,910.7% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 73,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,639,000 after purchasing an additional 71,992 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Vertex in the second quarter valued at $1,053,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Vertex during the second quarter worth about $245,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.