Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 118,589 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 71.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,673 shares of the company's stock after selling 118,589 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Vertex were worth $1,836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VERX. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vertex by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,287,774 shares of the company's stock worth $88,102,000 after buying an additional 54,985 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 17.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,690,045 shares of the company's stock worth $69,444,000 after acquiring an additional 253,263 shares during the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 40.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 414,945 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 36.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company's stock valued at $52,447,000 after purchasing an additional 363,595 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Vertex by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company's stock worth $49,121,000 after purchasing an additional 37,592 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $55.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In related news, 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 value of $121,516,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $386,065.50. This trade represents a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 52,713 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.02, for a total transaction of $2,162,287.26. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,144,993 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,967,612.86. This trade represents a 4.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,782,563 shares of company stock valued at $187,627,746. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Vertex Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of VERX traded down $1.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $51.32. 1,078,320 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 954,410. Vertex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $57.74. The business has a 50-day moving average of $51.64 and a 200-day moving average of $42.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 285.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. The business's revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect 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.