Vertex’s (VERX) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 price target on the stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Five equities research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.82.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $35.71 on Thursday. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.45. The company has a market cap of $5.65 billion, a PE ratio of 198.39, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. Vertex has a 12-month low of $27.22 and a 12-month high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.90 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at $69,428,435.36. The trade was a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total transaction of $1,555,343.44. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,749.36. This represents a 99.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Vertex by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,858,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,927,000 after purchasing an additional 137,666 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 3,527,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,198,000 after purchasing an additional 53,829 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,868,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,031,000 after purchasing an additional 580,664 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Vertex by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,129,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,587,000 after purchasing an additional 439,054 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Vertex by 342.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,513,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171,576 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.