Jones Financial Companies Lllp Boosts Stock Holdings in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 108.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 248 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in WEX were worth $43,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its holdings in WEX by 8.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,555,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $326,237,000 after buying an additional 125,262 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in WEX by 82.2% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 175,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after acquiring an additional 79,252 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of WEX by 168.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 82,896 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,533,000 after buying an additional 52,056 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of WEX by 300.4% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 68,539 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,375,000 after buying an additional 51,423 shares during the period. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in shares of WEX by 18.1% during the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 300,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $62,750,000 after buying an additional 46,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEX has been the subject of several recent research reports. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of WEX in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $172.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of WEX from $220.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup cut shares of WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $260.00 to $190.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $186.00 target price on shares of WEX in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $195.73.

WEX Stock Performance

NYSE:WEX opened at $155.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $181.08. WEX Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.03 and a twelve month high of $244.04.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.16. WEX had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 32.35%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that WEX Inc. will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.