Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 68.02% from the stock’s previous close.

VERX has been the subject of several other reports. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a report on Monday, December 9th. Five investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.82.

Vertex Stock Down 1.2 %

Vertex stock opened at $35.71 on Thursday. Vertex has a 1-year low of $27.22 and a 1-year high of $60.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 198.39, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. 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 50 day simple moving average of $46.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.38.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The business had revenue of $178.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.90 million. On average, analysts predict that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total value of $3,041,052.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,428,435.36. The trade was a 4.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total transaction of $1,555,343.44. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 132 shares in the company, valued at $4,749.36. This represents a 99.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fairman Group LLC bought a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth about $327,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth about $3,363,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 406.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 27,602 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the third quarter worth approximately $840,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,135,000. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

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.