Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Given New $48.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its price target decreased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $64.00 to $48.00 in a research report report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on VERX. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

Vertex Trading Down 0.5 %

Vertex stock opened at $32.12 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 178.44, a PEG ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.78. 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 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $60.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $52.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.87.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.03). The company 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total value of $30,480,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $418,513.95. This represents a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total transaction of $735,764.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,344,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,136,288.02. The trade was a 0.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 858,457 shares of company stock valued at $46,160,958 over the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairman Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth about $327,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth about $3,363,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 406.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after purchasing an additional 27,602 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the third quarter worth about $840,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. purchased a new stake in Vertex in the fourth quarter worth about $3,135,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.