Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Price Target Raised to $60.00

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its price target lifted by Morgan Stanley from $57.00 to $60.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Vertex in a research note on Thursday. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Five 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.82.

Vertex Price Performance

VERX stock opened at $35.71 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.45. The stock has a market cap 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. 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.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Research analysts anticipate that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vertex news, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total transaction of $1,555,343.44. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,749.36. This trade represents a 99.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,428,435.36. This represents a 4.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 44.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VERX. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 126.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.