Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Citigroup Analyst Says

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its target price lifted by Citigroup from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on VERX. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a report on Monday, December 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.70.

Vertex Price Performance

VERX opened at $53.06 on Monday. Vertex has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $57.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $48.66 and a 200 day moving average of $40.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 294.78, a PEG ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $48,289,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $311,220.90. The trade was a 99.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total transaction of $134,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,535 shares in the company, valued at $835,938.35. The trade was a 13.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,007,563 shares of company stock worth $235,917,246. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VERX. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Vertex by 406.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,324,000 after purchasing an additional 27,602 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,173,000. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the 3rd quarter valued at about $840,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Vertex by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 432,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,639,000 after buying an additional 23,086 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 10.0% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,940,000 after buying an additional 22,514 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.