Spire Wealth Management Reduces Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Spire Wealth Management lessened its stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 30,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Vertex were worth $1,627,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 126.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Vertex by 46.1% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Vertex by 191.1% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 1,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Vertex by 344.5% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 4,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total transaction of $121,516,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $386,065.50. This represents a 99.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total value of $134,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,535 shares in the company, valued at $835,938.35. The trade was a 13.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,632,062 shares of company stock worth $182,311,362. Company insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VERX. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of VERX opened at $57.51 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $54.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 319.50, a P/E/G ratio of 8.46 and a beta of 0.77. Vertex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.17 and a 1-year high of $60.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 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 business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertex 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.