Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Stifel Nicolaus

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) was downgraded by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $31.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $58.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective would indicate a potential downside of 4.00% from the stock’s current price.

VERX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Vertex in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.00.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $32.29 on Friday. Vertex has a 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $60.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company’s 50-day moving average is $52.09 and its 200 day moving average is $46.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 179.39, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.78.

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

Insider Transactions at Vertex

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at $69,428,435.36. The trade was a 4.20 % decrease in their position. 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 90 days. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fairman Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $327,000. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,363,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 27,602 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the third quarter worth approximately $840,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,135,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.