Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Shares Purchased by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 344.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,529 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,510 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Vertex were worth $174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VERX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Vertex by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,791,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,929,000 after acquiring an additional 235,407 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $192,000. Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $321,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Vertex by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 46,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank raised its position in shares of Vertex by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 230,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,332,000 after purchasing an additional 24,851 shares in the last quarter. 59.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David Destefano sold 159,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $7,893,298.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 332,290 shares in the company, valued at $16,484,906.90. This represents a 32.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 3,020 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.08, for a total value of $166,341.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,202,949 shares of company stock worth $192,797,340 in the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VERX. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.30.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $54.25 on Thursday. Vertex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.31 and a twelve month high of $55.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $8.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 306.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.30 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.55.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share 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.