Norris Perne & French LLP MI Buys Shares of 234,292 Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Norris Perne & French LLP MI bought a new stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 234,292 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,203,000. Norris Perne & French LLP MI owned about 0.15% of Vertex at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at about $79,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Vertex

In related news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.45, for a total transaction of $115,350,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $303,562.75. This trade represents a 99.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Ryan J. Leib sold 5,755 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total value of $218,690.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,496,403 shares of company stock valued at $133,643,377. 43.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VERX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Vertex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their target price for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $54.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Vertex from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Four 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $50.50.

Vertex Stock Down 4.4%

VERX stock traded down $1.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $33.97. 3,051,033 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,037,302. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $38.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.83. The stock has a market cap of $5.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -117.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.75. Vertex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.26 and a fifty-two week high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.02. Vertex had a positive return on equity of 28.14% and a negative net margin of 6.45%. The company had revenue of $177.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.