DA Davidson Initiates Coverage on Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)

Investment analysts at DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm set a "buy" rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. DA Davidson's target price points to a potential upside of 16.21% from the company's current price.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Vertex stock traded up $0.30 on Tuesday, hitting $53.35. 987,762 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 793,216. The company has a fifty day moving average of $51.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.22. Vertex has a one year low of $23.31 and a one year high of $57.74. The company has a market capitalization of $8.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 296.39, 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. Vertex's quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $48,289,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company's stock, valued at $311,220.90. This trade represents a 99.36 % 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 46,098 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.48, for a total value of $1,866,047.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 989,125 shares in the company, valued at $40,039,780. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,007,563 shares of company stock worth $235,917,246 in the last quarter. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Vertex by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,313 shares of the company's stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 126.2% in 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. KBC Group NV grew its position in Vertex by 46.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,099 shares of the company's stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC grew its position in Vertex by 4.4% during the third quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC now owns 16,707 shares of the company's stock valued at $643,000 after acquiring an additional 697 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company's stock.

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.