Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Increases Holdings in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 85.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,500 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 20,940 shares during the quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG's holdings in Vertex were worth $1,593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Vertex by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,678 shares of the company's stock valued at $303,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Vertex by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,645 shares of the company's stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 588 shares during the period. Westover Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Vertex by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Westover Capital Advisors LLC now owns 55,427 shares of the company's stock worth $2,957,000 after purchasing an additional 632 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC bought a new position in Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on VERX shares. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Vertex from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Piper Sandler began coverage on Vertex in a report on Monday. They set an "overweight" rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.50.

Vertex Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:VERX traded down $1.42 on Thursday, reaching $35.52. 1,558,093 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,029,671. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.26 and a 52 week high of $60.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $38.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -122.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.75.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $177.06 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $176.99 million. Vertex had a negative net margin of 6.45% and a positive return on equity of 28.14%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.15 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Ann sold 157,874 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.93, for a total value of $5,672,412.82. Following the sale, the insider now owns 196,841 shares in the company, valued at $7,072,497.13. This represents a 44.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.45, for a total value of $115,350,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company's stock, valued at $303,562.75. The trade was a 99.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,496,403 shares of company stock valued at $133,643,377 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 43.25% of the company's stock.

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.