Commerce Bank Grows Stake in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Commerce Bank grew its holdings in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Commerce Bank’s holdings in WEX were worth $760,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA grew its position in WEX by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 914,250 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $173,561,000 after purchasing an additional 48,182 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of WEX by 5.0% during the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 720,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $151,103,000 after buying an additional 34,264 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of WEX by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 495,527 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $87,772,000 after acquiring an additional 126,663 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in WEX by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 402,365 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $71,275,000 after acquiring an additional 11,821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in WEX by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 378,969 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $67,131,000 after acquiring an additional 17,989 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at WEX

In other WEX news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 508 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $101,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,424,000. This trade represents a 6.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

WEX Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of WEX stock opened at $188.15 on Tuesday. WEX Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $165.51 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $7.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.57. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $196.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.80.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $4.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $665.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $688.03 million. WEX had a return on equity of 31.35% and a net margin of 12.45%. WEX’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that WEX Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research lowered WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of WEX from $238.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of WEX from $285.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of WEX from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of WEX from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.91.

WEX Company Profile

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings.