Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Grows Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 30.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,584 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,625 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Vertex were worth $686,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Vertex by 342.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,513,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171,576 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at $61,825,000. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Vertex by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,947,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,200,000 after purchasing an additional 686,145 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Vertex by 233.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 851,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,409,000 after purchasing an additional 596,077 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Vertex by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,868,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,031,000 after purchasing an additional 580,664 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David Destefano sold 109,415 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.70, for a total transaction of $4,124,945.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,066,587 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,210,329.90. This represents a 9.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.45, for a total value of $115,350,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $303,562.75. This trade represents a 99.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,520,170 shares of company stock valued at $134,479,744. 43.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Vertex Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of VERX stock opened at $33.10 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $36.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.68. Vertex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.26 and a 1-year high of $60.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.25 billion, a PE ratio of -114.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $177.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.99 million. Vertex had a positive return on equity of 28.14% and a negative net margin of 6.45%. Vertex’s revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Vertex from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Vertex from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Vertex in a research report on Monday, June 16th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. DA Davidson raised Vertex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $54.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.33.

Vertex Company 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.