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

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

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VERX. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in Vertex by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 712,926 shares of the company's stock valued at $22,643,000 after acquiring an additional 85,237 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,173,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 24.7% in the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 92,167 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,927,000 after buying an additional 18,258 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Vertex by 10.0% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company's stock worth $8,940,000 after acquiring an additional 22,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the second quarter worth approximately $1,824,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Vertex Stock Up 0.7 %

Vertex stock traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $53.83. The stock had a trading volume of 772,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 989,127. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.10. The company has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 299.06, a PEG ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Vertex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.31 and a 12 month high of $54.50.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 earnings per share. Vertex's revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 40,966 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.16, for a total value of $2,136,786.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,389,134 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $72,457,229.44. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of Vertex 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 $386,065.50. This represents a 99.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,330,722 shares of company stock worth $197,009,011 in the last quarter. Insiders own 44.58% of the company's stock.

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.