Jeffrey Westphal Sells 3,000,000 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 3,000,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 $303,562.75. The trade was a 99.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of VERX traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $36.92. 1,116,205 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,024,812. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $44.51. Vertex, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.26 and a 1 year high of $60.71. The stock has a market cap of $5.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 205.11, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.75.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.02. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The firm had revenue of $177.06 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $176.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Vertex by 342.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,513,660 shares of the company's stock valued at $80,754,000 after buying an additional 1,171,576 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,825,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Vertex by 63.0% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,429,416 shares of the company's stock valued at $85,054,000 after buying an additional 939,031 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Vertex during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,399,000. Finally, Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Vertex by 30.3% during the first quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,947,740 shares of the company's stock valued at $103,200,000 after buying an additional 686,145 shares during the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Four 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.73.

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.