Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. Invests $50,000 in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 406.9% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 27,602 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Vertex in the second quarter valued at about $22,173,000. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new position in Vertex in the third quarter valued at about $840,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Vertex by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 432,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,639,000 after purchasing an additional 23,086 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Vertex by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,940,000 after purchasing an additional 22,514 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total value of $30,480,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total transaction of $134,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,938.35. This trade represents a 13.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,578,219 shares of company stock worth $179,270,309. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on VERX. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target 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. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective on shares of Vertex in a research note on Monday, December 9th. 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, November 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of VERX stock opened at $55.83 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Vertex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.38 and a 1 year high of $57.74. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 310.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.64 and a beta of 0.77.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced 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 net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

About Vertex

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.