Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Price Target to $48.00

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its target price decreased by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $62.00 to $48.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 46.35% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Vertex from $46.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.00.

Vertex Stock Down 5.0 %

NASDAQ:VERX traded down $1.74 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $32.80. The company had a trading volume of 914,703 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,115,544. 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 firm has a market cap of $5.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 182.94, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.74. Vertex has a twelve month low of $27.22 and a twelve month high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $418,513.95. The trade was a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total value of $735,764.98. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,344,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,136,288.02. This represents a 0.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 858,457 shares of company stock worth $46,160,958 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VERX. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Vertex by 126.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Hedge funds and other 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.