Y.D. More Investments Ltd Purchases New Shares in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Key Points

• Y.D. More Investments Ltd has acquired a new stake in Vertex, Inc., purchasing 41,000 shares valued at approximately $1.44 million.
• Several institutional investors have significantly increased their positions in Vertex, with Invesco Ltd. growing its stake by 342.5% in the last quarter.
• Insider sales have been notable, including Jeffrey Westphal selling 3 million shares for over $115 million, resulting in a 99.74% decrease in his position.

Y.D. More Investments Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 41,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,435,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VERX. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its stake in Vertex by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 54,115 shares of the company's stock worth $2,887,000 after buying an additional 11,966 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Vertex by 3,751.0% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,087 shares of the company's stock worth $283,000 after purchasing an additional 7,877 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Vertex by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 224,762 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,869,000 after purchasing an additional 45,494 shares in the last quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI acquired a new stake in Vertex during the 1st quarter worth $8,203,000. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 42.1% during the first quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 2,043,205 shares of the company's stock worth $71,533,000 after acquiring an additional 605,617 shares during the period. 70.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Vertex Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of VERX traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $25.20. 735,429 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,325,191. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.89. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.11 and a 52 week high of $60.71. The company has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a PE ratio of -76.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VERX. DA Davidson lowered shares of Vertex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $43.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Vertex from $60.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $43.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Ryan J. Leib sold 5,755 shares of the firm'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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Ann sold 157,874 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.93, for a total value of $5,672,412.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 196,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,072,497.13. This represents a 44.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,520,170 shares of company stock worth $134,479,744 over the last three months. Company insiders own 43.25% of the company's stock.

Vertex 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.