Raymond James Reaffirms Market Perform Rating for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating restated by research analysts at Raymond James in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Vertex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.36.

Vertex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VERX opened at $51.32 on Friday. Vertex has a twelve month low of $23.31 and a twelve month high of $57.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a PE ratio of 285.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In other Vertex news, 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 transaction of $166,341.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total transaction of $735,764.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,344,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,136,288.02. This represents a 0.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,782,563 shares of company stock valued at $187,627,746. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Vertex by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,287,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,102,000 after purchasing an additional 54,985 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Vertex by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,690,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,444,000 after purchasing an additional 253,263 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 414,945 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Vertex by 36.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,447,000 after buying an additional 363,595 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 3.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,121,000 after buying an additional 37,592 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

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.