Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $55.36.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VERX shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Vertex in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Vertex Price Performance

Vertex stock opened at $56.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $54.97 and a 200-day moving average of $46.15. Vertex has a 52-week low of $24.17 and a 52-week high of $60.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 311.22, a PEG ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 0.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 40,966 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.16, for a total transaction of $2,136,786.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,389,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,457,229.44. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David Destefano sold 159,107 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total value of $7,893,298.27. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 332,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,484,906.90. This trade represents a 32.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,111,932 shares of company stock valued at $59,005,301 in the last 90 days. 44.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $271,000. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Vertex by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 115,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,173,000 after purchasing an additional 7,900 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Vertex by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 14,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $798,000 after purchasing an additional 929 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,792,000. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

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.