Jeffrey Westphal Sells 575,000 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $418,513.95. This trade represents a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Jeffrey Westphal also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, November 11th, Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of Vertex stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total value of $121,516,500.00.
• On Thursday, October 3rd, Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of Vertex stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $48,289,500.00.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of VERX opened at $53.46 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 297.00, a PEG ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. Vertex, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.31 and a 12 month high of $57.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $48.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.74.

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

Institutional Trading of Vertex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Vertex by 126.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Vertex during the second quarter worth about $37,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Vertex in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank acquired a new stake in Vertex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $68,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VERX. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Three research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.10.

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.