Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Invests $441,000 in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 8,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $441,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VERX. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $1,324,000 after purchasing an additional 27,602 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Vertex by 46.1% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Vertex by 344.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 4,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,000 after buying an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Vertex by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 469,526 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,081,000 after buying an additional 124,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Vertex by 126.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.82.

Vertex Stock Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ VERX opened at $35.71 on Friday. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.22 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.38. The firm 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total value of $3,041,052.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares of the company’s stock, 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 through this link. Also, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total value of $1,555,343.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 132 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

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.