Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $50.00.

A number of research firms have issued reports on VERX. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective on shares of Vertex in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday.

Vertex Price Performance

VERX opened at $33.04 on Friday. Vertex has a 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $60.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.15 billion, a PE ratio of 183.56, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $178.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total transaction of $735,764.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,344,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,136,288.02. This represents a 0.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 858,457 shares of company stock valued at $46,160,958 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter worth about $6,018,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,909,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Vertex by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 165,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,831,000 after buying an additional 25,991 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,117,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC bought a new position in Vertex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,376,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by 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.