Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Vertex, Inc. has received an average consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from 16 analysts, with a target price of approximately $42.71 over the next 12 months.
• Recent analyst ratings include upgrades to a "strong buy" from Citigroup and downgrades from DA Davidson, while Bank of America set a neutral rating with a reduced price target.
• Vertex reported a 14.6% year-over-year revenue increase for the last quarter, achieving earnings per share of $0.15, exceeding estimates slightly.

Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $42.7143.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup raised Vertex from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. DA Davidson downgraded Vertex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Bank of America lowered 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. JMP Securities set a $50.00 price objective on Vertex and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Vertex by 31.0% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,467 shares of the company's stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Vertex during the second quarter valued at about $54,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Vertex by 44.4% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,664 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Vertex by 25.7% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,933 shares of the company's stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew 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 acquiring an additional 948 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.32% of the company's stock.

Vertex Stock Performance

Vertex stock opened at $24.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $25.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -75.09, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.63. Vertex has a fifty-two week low of $23.13 and a fifty-two week high of $60.71.

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

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