Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Sells 27,709 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group significantly reduced its stake in Vertex, Inc. by 77.4%, owning only 8,068 shares after selling 27,709 shares during the first quarter.
• Insider trading is prominent as significant sales occurred, including 3 million shares sold by insider Jeffrey Westphal, resulting in a 99.74% decrease in his ownership.
• Despite recent fluctuations, Vertex's revenue increased by 14.6% year-over-year, with an earnings per share of $0.15, surpassing estimates of $0.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 77.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,068 shares of the company's stock after selling 27,709 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Vertex were worth $282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Vertex by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,678 shares of the company's stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Vertex by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,645 shares of the company's stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 588 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in Vertex during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Vertex by 88.1% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,024 shares of the company's stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming raised its position in Vertex by 52.2% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,020 shares of the company's stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.32% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VERX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Vertex from $50.00 to $43.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Thursday, August 7th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $50.00 target price (down from $61.00) on shares of Vertex in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Vertex from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $43.69.

Vertex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VERX traded up $1.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $26.23. The company had a trading volume of 849,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,335,526. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.45 and a 52 week high of $60.71. The firm has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -79.59, a PEG ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 0.70. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $34.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.57.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. Vertex had a negative net margin of 7.09% and a positive return on equity of 27.16%. The company had revenue of $184.56 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $184.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Vertex's revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider directly owned 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $303,562.75. The trade was a 99.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Ann sold 14,425 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.24, for a total transaction of $508,337.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 173,074 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,099,127.76. This trade represents a 7.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,405,000 shares of company stock worth $130,136,108. 43.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.