Natixis Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Natixis Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 34,720 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,765 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Vertex were worth $1,252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in Vertex in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Sandia Investment Management LP purchased a new position in Vertex in the 1st quarter valued at $159,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Vertex in the 1st quarter valued at $166,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 1st quarter worth $192,000. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the 1st quarter worth $213,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Vertex

In other Vertex news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.81, for a total value of $56,715,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,054,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,875,976.21. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 16,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.95, for a total transaction of $575,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $777,778.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.81, for a total value of $56,715,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,054,641 shares in the company, valued at $39,875,976.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,699,900 shares of company stock worth $64,107,653. 45.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Vertex Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of VERX stock opened at $35.66 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.43. Vertex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.48 and a twelve month high of $40.05. The company has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 891.50, a PEG ratio of 10.08 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $161.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.66 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 22.32% and a net margin of 3.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.04 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VERX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on Vertex from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird began coverage on Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Vertex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.30.

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.