Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on VERX. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday. They set an outperform rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Vertex from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Vertex from $40.00 to $34.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $36.80.

Vertex Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Vertex stock opened at $37.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 947.75, a P/E/G ratio of 20.37 and a beta of 0.69. Vertex has a 52-week low of $17.59 and a 52-week high of $40.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.65.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $156.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $155.50 million. Vertex had a net margin of 1.29% and a return on equity of 18.67%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Vertex will post 0.19 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.81, for a total transaction of $56,715,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,054,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,875,976.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 45.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $72,000. Sandia Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in Vertex in the first quarter worth approximately $159,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Vertex during the first quarter valued at approximately $166,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the first quarter worth approximately $192,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Company 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.