Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Major Shareholder Sells $121,516,500.00 in Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total transaction of $121,516,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $386,065.50. This trade represents a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Major shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Jeffrey Westphal also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, October 3rd, Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of Vertex stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $48,289,500.00.

Vertex Price Performance

VERX opened at $49.10 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $41.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.64 billion, a PE ratio of 272.78, a P/E/G ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 0.67. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.31 and a 52 week high of $52.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VERX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Baird R W upgraded Vertex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of 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 given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.30.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VERX. Banque Pictet & Cie SA increased its stake in Vertex by 551.9% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 3rd quarter valued at $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd raised its stake in Vertex by 787.0% during the 3rd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,280,000 after buying an additional 465,610 shares during the period. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 414,945 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.10% 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.