Premier Fund Managers Ltd Buys 465,610 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 787.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 524,775 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 465,610 shares during the quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd’s holdings in Vertex were worth $19,280,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Banque Pictet & Cie SA grew its position in Vertex by 551.9% during the 2nd quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,231,000 after acquiring an additional 803,881 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex during the second quarter worth about $22,173,000. Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertex by 40.1% in the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after buying an additional 414,945 shares during the period. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new position in Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $12,402,000. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. acquired a new stake in Vertex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,738,000. 59.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vertex Trading Up 3.7 %

Shares of VERX stock opened at $51.20 on Wednesday. Vertex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $52.93. 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 simple moving average of $42.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.73. The company has a market cap of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 284.44, a PEG ratio of 9.22 and a beta of 0.67.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. Vertex’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on VERX. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Baird R W raised Vertex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.30.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David Destefano sold 159,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.61, for a total transaction of $7,893,298.27. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 332,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,484,906.90. This represents a 32.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 8,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.50, for a total value of $420,007.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 782,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,743,947. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,330,756 shares of company stock worth $196,342,674. Company insiders own 44.58% 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.