DRW Securities LLC Makes New Investment in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 21,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $840,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $22,173,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Vertex by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,940,000 after buying an additional 22,514 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,824,000. Brown Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $20,938,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Vertex by 269.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 34,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,239,000 after buying an additional 25,072 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price 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 increased their price objective on Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned 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 Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of VERX opened at $54.88 on Tuesday. Vertex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.31 and a 52-week high of $55.25. The company has a market capitalization of $8.56 billion, a PE ratio of 304.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.10 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.22. 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, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.06 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $48,289,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $311,220.90. This represents a 99.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 40,966 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.16, for a total value of $2,136,786.56. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,389,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,457,229.44. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,171,822 shares of company stock valued at $191,086,808 in the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.