Vertex, Inc. $VERX is Aperture Investors LLC's 9th Largest Position

Key Points

• Aperture Investors LLC has increased its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 1.8%, making it the firm's 9th largest position, with holdings worth approximately $22.55 million.
• Insider Jeffrey Westphal sold a significant amount of shares (3 million) at an average price of $38.45, marking a 99.74% decrease in his ownership of the stock.
• Brokerage firms have recently adjusted their ratings and price targets for Vertex, with various ratings including "strong-buy" from Citigroup and a downgrade from DA Davidson to "hold."

Aperture Investors LLC raised its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) by 1.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 644,215 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 11,517 shares during the period. Vertex makes up approximately 2.9% of Aperture Investors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Aperture Investors LLC owned about 0.41% of Vertex worth $22,554,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Vertex by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 54,115 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,887,000 after buying an additional 11,966 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Vertex by 3,751.0% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,087 shares of the company's stock valued at $283,000 after buying an additional 7,877 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Vertex by 25.4% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 224,762 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,869,000 after buying an additional 45,494 shares in the last quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI purchased a new position in Vertex in the first quarter valued at about $8,203,000. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Vertex by 42.1% in the first quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 2,043,205 shares of the company's stock valued at $71,533,000 after buying an additional 605,617 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Vertex

In other Vertex news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 7,895 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $303,562.75. The trade was a 99.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Ann sold 14,425 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 173,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,099,127.76. The trade was a 7.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,405,000 shares of company stock valued at $130,136,108 over the last ninety days. 43.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VERX. DA Davidson downgraded Vertex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Vertex from $60.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Piper Sandler began coverage on Vertex in a research report on Monday, June 16th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup upgraded Vertex from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on Vertex from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Vertex presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $43.69.

Vertex Stock Up 0.3%

VERX stock opened at $25.34 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -76.79, a PEG ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Vertex, Inc. has a one year low of $24.45 and a one year high of $60.71. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $31.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.05.

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

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.

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