Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Given Buy Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 64.61% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on VERX. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. 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. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $36.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $47.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.47. Vertex has a one year low of $27.22 and a one year high of $60.71. The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 202.50, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The firm had revenue of $178.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.90 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total value of $3,041,052.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,229,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,428,435.36. This represents a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 342.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,513,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,754,000 after buying an additional 1,171,576 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at about $61,825,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 233.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 851,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,409,000 after buying an additional 596,077 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,868,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,031,000 after buying an additional 580,664 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the third quarter valued at about $20,938,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

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.