AGF Management Ltd. Purchases New Shares in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

AGF Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 176,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,421,000. AGF Management Ltd. owned about 0.11% of Vertex as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Vertex by 126.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. bought a new position in Vertex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $79,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,428,435.36. This trade represents a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on VERX shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a research note on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Five research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Vertex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of Vertex stock opened at $32.15 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 178.61, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. Vertex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.22 and a twelve month high of $60.71. The company’s fifty day moving average is $49.60 and its 200 day moving average is $46.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $178.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

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.