Sheets Smith Wealth Management Increases Holdings in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management increased its position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,099 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Vertex were worth $806,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 540 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Vertex in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Amalgamated Bank bought a new stake in Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at $68,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 191.1% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 1,483 shares during the period. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.36.

Insider Activity at Vertex

In other news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 2,500 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.81, for a total value of $134,525.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,938.35. The trade was a 13.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total value of $30,480,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,578,219 shares of company stock valued at $179,270,309. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Vertex Trading Up 1.1 %

Vertex stock opened at $57.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a PE ratio of 316.67, a P/E/G ratio of 8.27 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.18. Vertex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.17 and a 12 month high of $57.74.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertex 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.