Brown Capital Management LLC Invests $20.94 Million in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 543,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,938,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new stake in Vertex during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the second quarter worth about $37,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Vertex by 126.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank purchased a new position in Vertex in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $68,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 158,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.27, for a total value of $5,922,203.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,430,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,299,827. This represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $48,289,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,220.90. This represents a 99.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,289,756 shares of company stock valued at $194,872,224 over the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VERX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their target price on Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Vertex Trading Up 2.2 %

VERX opened at $52.31 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $42.38 and a 200 day moving average of $37.83. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.31 and a 12 month high of $52.93. The firm has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 290.61, a P/E/G ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 0.67.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

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.