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 released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $45.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Vertex from $40.00 to $34.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Vertex from $27.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Vertex from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Vertex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $35.67.

Vertex Price Performance

NASDAQ VERX opened at $35.29 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $31.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 882.25, a PEG ratio of 17.97 and a beta of 0.68. Vertex has a 52 week low of $17.59 and a 52 week high of $36.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $156.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $155.50 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 18.67% and a net margin of 1.29%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Vertex will post 0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.93, for a total transaction of $49,395,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,554,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,124,328.13. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.93, for a total transaction of $49,395,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,554,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,124,328.13. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider 2020 Irrevocable Trust For Ben sold 47,522 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.09, for a total value of $1,429,936.98. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 81,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,448,152.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,380,302 shares of company stock worth $75,855,084 in the last three months. 45.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Vertex by 19.0% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,832,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,311,000 after buying an additional 452,840 shares during the period. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Vertex during the third quarter worth $4,763,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Vertex by 85.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 425,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,822,000 after buying an additional 196,169 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 5.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,918,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,623,000 after buying an additional 264,884 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new position in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth $9,253,000. 59.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.