Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Purchases New Stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 126.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in Vertex in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Vertex by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on VERX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Five 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.00.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $34.65 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $47.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $5.48 billion, a PE ratio of 192.50, a PEG ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. Vertex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.22 and a 52-week high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.03). Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $178.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at $69,428,435.36. This trade represents a 4.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.