Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock Price

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $50.00 to $62.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 25.38% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on VERX. Baird R W raised shares of Vertex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.30.

Vertex Trading Down 2.2 %

NASDAQ:VERX opened at $49.45 on Wednesday. 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 has a one year low of $23.31 and a one year high of $52.93. The company has a market cap of $7.69 billion, a PE ratio of 274.72, a PEG ratio of 9.34 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.91 and a 200-day moving average of $37.09.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.06 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 52,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.02, for a total value of $2,162,287.26. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,144,993 shares in the company, valued at $46,967,612.86. The trade was a 4.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.95, for a total transaction of $575,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,635 shares in the company, valued at $777,778.25. This trade represents a 42.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,149,374 shares of company stock worth $187,345,650 in the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,791,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,929,000 after acquiring an additional 235,407 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,287,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,102,000 after purchasing an additional 54,985 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Vertex by 40.1% in the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 414,945 shares during the last quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 551.9% during the second quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,231,000 after purchasing an additional 803,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 8.1% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 782,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,217,000 after purchasing an additional 58,678 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.10% 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.