Bryan T.R. Rowland Sells 3,020 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 3,020 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.08, for a total value of $166,341.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Vertex Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Vertex stock opened at $54.25 on Thursday. Vertex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.31 and a 1-year high of $55.52. 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 has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 301.39, a P/E/G ratio of 10.30 and a beta of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.66.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Banque Pictet & Cie SA boosted its holdings in Vertex by 551.9% in the 2nd quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,231,000 after purchasing an additional 803,881 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Vertex in the third quarter valued at approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its position in Vertex by 787.0% in the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,280,000 after acquiring an additional 465,610 shares during the period. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Vertex by 40.1% during the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 414,945 shares during the last quarter. 59.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.30.

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.