New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 1,971 Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its stake in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 125,599 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,971 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in WEX were worth $22,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WEX. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC increased its holdings in WEX by 672.7% during the 3rd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 154,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,305,000 after acquiring an additional 134,099 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in WEX by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,555,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $326,237,000 after purchasing an additional 125,262 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of WEX by 82.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 175,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 79,252 shares in the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. increased its holdings in shares of WEX by 61.3% in the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 149,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,321,000 after purchasing an additional 56,775 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of WEX by 300.4% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 68,539 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,375,000 after buying an additional 51,423 shares in the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Robert Joseph Deshaies sold 175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.44, for a total transaction of $33,152.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,582 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,334.08. This represents a 2.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on WEX. Barclays reduced their target price on WEX from $200.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on WEX from $220.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America downgraded shares of WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wolfe Research cut shares of WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of WEX from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $199.73.

WEX Price Performance

Shares of WEX stock opened at $150.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a fifty day moving average of $172.05 and a 200-day moving average of $184.02. WEX Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.03 and a 52-week high of $244.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.02.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.16. WEX had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 32.35%. Equities research analysts expect that WEX Inc. will post 14.09 EPS for the current year.

WEX Company Profile

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings.