Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $2.33 Million in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 11,105 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,329,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in WEX by 34.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 495,527 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $87,772,000 after purchasing an additional 126,663 shares during the last quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in WEX during the second quarter valued at approximately $13,950,000. HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in WEX by 61.3% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 149,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,321,000 after purchasing an additional 56,775 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its position in WEX by 1,610.6% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 58,264 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,839,000 after purchasing an additional 54,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its position in WEX by 5.6% during the second quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 914,250 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $173,561,000 after purchasing an additional 48,182 shares during the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on WEX. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on WEX from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on WEX from $275.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Bank of America raised their price objective on WEX from $238.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research lowered WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on WEX from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.91.

WEX Price Performance

Shares of WEX opened at $172.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company’s 50-day moving average is $199.35 and its 200-day moving average is $192.94. WEX Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.97 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 21.90, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.55.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $4.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.53. WEX had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 31.35%. The business had revenue of $665.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $688.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.44 earnings per share. WEX’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that WEX Inc. will post 13.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at WEX

In related news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 508 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $101,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,424,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other WEX news, COO Robert Joseph Deshaies sold 1,651 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.67, for a total transaction of $299,937.17. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,757 shares in the company, valued at $1,409,214.19. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 508 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $101,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 7,120 shares in the company, valued at $1,424,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

WEX Profile

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings.