Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 11,155 Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 11,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $595,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Vertex during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Vertex during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vertex in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Assetmark Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In other news, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total value of $1,555,343.44. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,749.36. This represents a 99.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229,257 shares in the company, valued at $69,428,435.36. This trade represents a 4.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VERX has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Vertex from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Vertex in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.82.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of Vertex stock opened at $34.98 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 194.33, a PEG ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.80. Vertex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.22 and a 1-year high of $60.71.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current 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.