Jennison Associates LLC Reduces Holdings in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 455,028 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,498 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Vertex were worth $24,276,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Vertex by 269.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 34,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 25,072 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $444,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 37.6% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $451,000 after buying an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Westwind Capital acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex during the third quarter worth approximately $7,180,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the third quarter worth $208,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VERX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped 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. Finally, DA Davidson initiated coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.36.

Vertex Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ VERX opened at $58.16 on Thursday. Vertex, Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.17 and a 12-month high of $60.00. The company has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 323.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.46 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $165.70 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.06 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David Destefano sold 216,268 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.04, for a total value of $11,903,390.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 293,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,145,708.80. This represents a 42.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available 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 shares were sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total value of $121,516,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $386,065.50. The trade was a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,605,417 shares of company stock valued at $180,941,809 in the last quarter. Company 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.