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 firm currently has a $60.00 price target on the stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.82.

Vertex Stock Down 1.2 %

VERX stock opened at $35.71 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. Vertex has a 52-week low of $27.22 and a 52-week high of $60.71. The company has a 50-day moving average of $46.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 198.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,749.36. This represents a 99.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at $69,428,435.36. This trade represents a 4.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC bought a new position in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 126.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the period. 70.32% of the stock is 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.