Lightrock Netherlands B.V. Purchases Shares of 12,000 WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Lightrock Netherlands B.V. purchased a new stake in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 12,000 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,887,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in WEX by 27,871.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 69,089 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $10,848,000 after purchasing an additional 68,842 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in WEX by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 29,408 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,283,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in WEX by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 6,008 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,053,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in WEX by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 327 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of WEX by 108.4% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 248 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WEX news, CEO Melissa D. Smith bought 3,721 shares of WEX stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 29th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $134.57 per share, with a total value of $500,734.97. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 101,182 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,616,061.74. This represents a 3.82% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Jennifer Kimball sold 1,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.08, for a total transaction of $183,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,177 shares in the company, valued at $416,441.16. This represents a 30.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of WEX from $160.00 to $140.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of WEX in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of WEX from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of WEX from $172.00 to $138.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, WEX presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $176.90.

WEX Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE WEX opened at $151.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.06. WEX Inc. has a 52 week low of $110.45 and a 52 week high of $217.47. The firm's fifty day moving average is $137.32 and its 200 day moving average is $150.81. The company has a market cap of $5.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.49, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.23.

WEX (NYSE:WEX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $636.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $631.42 million. WEX had a net margin of 12.07% and a return on equity of 37.90%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that WEX Inc. will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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