Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 3,834 Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 265.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,280 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,834 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in WEX were worth $926,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WEX. Commerce Bank lifted its holdings in WEX by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 3,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in WEX by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 10,425 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,847,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of WEX by 40.7% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 301 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of WEX by 47.3% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 277 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Long Road Investment Counsel LLC grew its stake in shares of WEX by 0.4% in the second quarter. Long Road Investment Counsel LLC now owns 26,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,729,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on WEX. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wolfe Research cut shares of WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America upped their price target on WEX from $238.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of WEX from $247.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $260.00 to $190.00 in a report on Tuesday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $219.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Robert Joseph Deshaies sold 175 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.44, for a total value of $33,152.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,436,334.08. This represents a 2.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

WEX Stock Up 1.3 %

WEX stock opened at $180.04 on Thursday. WEX Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $165.51 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04. The company has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The business’s 50-day moving average is $178.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.97.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $4.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.53. WEX had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 31.35%. The firm had revenue of $665.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $688.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that WEX Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current year.

WEX Profile

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings.