Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Reaches New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $60.71 and last traded at $58.96, with a volume of 105158 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $58.16.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VERX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Vertex in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup raised 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Down 1.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $54.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 315.56, a P/E/G ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 0.78.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. 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 company posted $0.06 EPS. Vertex’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Vertex

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total value of $121,516,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $386,065.50. This represents a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,605,417 shares of company stock worth $180,941,809 over the last quarter. 44.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VERX. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 269.4% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 34,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 25,072 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Vertex during the third quarter valued at $444,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in Vertex by 37.6% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares in the last quarter. Westwind Capital purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the third quarter worth $7,180,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex during the third quarter valued at $208,000. 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.