Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Buys 211,896 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 29.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 933,034 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 211,896 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned approximately 0.60% of Vertex worth $35,932,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VERX. Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its holdings in Vertex by 551.9% during the second quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company's stock worth $34,231,000 after acquiring an additional 803,881 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Vertex in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its position in Vertex by 787.0% during the 3rd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company's stock worth $19,280,000 after acquiring an additional 465,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Vertex by 40.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company's stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 414,945 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VERX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Vertex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Vertex has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David Destefano sold 159,107 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $7,893,298.27. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 332,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,484,906.90. This represents a 32.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total transaction of $48,289,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company's stock, valued at $311,220.90. This represents a 99.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,432,563 shares of company stock valued at $205,436,496. Insiders own 44.58% of the company's stock.

Vertex Stock Down 4.4 %

Shares of VERX stock traded down $2.40 on Friday, hitting $52.39. The stock had a trading volume of 1,290,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,521. Vertex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.31 and a 12-month high of $57.74. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $48.17 and a 200 day moving average of $40.59. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 291.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77.

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