abrdn plc Increases Stock Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 74.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,029,177 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 440,832 shares during the period. abrdn plc owned about 0.66% of Vertex worth $55,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 126.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 191.1% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,259 shares of the company's stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 1,483 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 46.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,099 shares of the company's stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 344.5% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 4,529 shares of the company's stock worth $174,000 after buying an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In other news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 8,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.50, for a total transaction of $420,007.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 782,706 shares in the company, valued at $38,743,947. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total transaction of $121,516,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $386,065.50. This represents a 99.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,605,417 shares of company stock worth $180,941,809. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VERX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ VERX traded down $1.11 on Friday, hitting $56.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 455,832 shares, compared to its average volume of 731,699. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.17 and a 1-year high of $60.71. The company's 50-day moving average is $54.94 and its 200 day moving average is $45.92. The firm has a market cap of $8.86 billion, a PE ratio of 315.56, a PEG ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 0.78.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $165.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. The company's revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertex 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.