Jeffrey Westphal Sells 575,000 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total value of $30,480,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

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

• On Monday, November 11th, Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of Vertex stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total transaction of $121,516,500.00.
• On Thursday, October 3rd, Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of Vertex stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $48,289,500.00.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VERX opened at $53.30 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 296.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.74. Vertex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $57.74.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The company had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in Vertex by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,287,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,102,000 after buying an additional 54,985 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,690,045 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,444,000 after purchasing an additional 253,263 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Vertex by 40.1% during the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 414,945 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Vertex by 36.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,447,000 after purchasing an additional 363,595 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Vertex by 3.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,121,000 after buying an additional 37,592 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VERX shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a report on Monday, December 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.10.

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.