Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Lowers Holdings in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lowered its holdings in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 17.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,738 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,863 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in WEX were worth $1,548,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in WEX during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $89,745,000. Kodai Capital Management LP bought a new stake in WEX in the 4th quarter valued at $49,750,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in WEX by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,122,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $607,482,000 after acquiring an additional 179,813 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in WEX by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,199,017 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $816,919,000 after purchasing an additional 67,893 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on WEX from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on WEX from $275.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. William Blair raised shares of WEX to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $190.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Six investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.58.

WEX Price Performance

WEX stock opened at $186.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a PE ratio of 30.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.54. WEX Inc. has a 12 month low of $161.95 and a 12 month high of $244.04. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $181.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $200.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $3.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.09. WEX had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 9.32%. The business had revenue of $673.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $677.44 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that WEX Inc. will post 13.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at WEX

In other news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 540 shares of WEX stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $102,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,628 shares in the company, valued at $1,449,320. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other WEX news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $102,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,449,320. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ann Elena Drew sold 1,182 shares of WEX stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.73, for a total transaction of $204,166.86. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,524.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,477 shares of company stock valued at $993,307 in the last quarter. 1.10% of the stock is owned by 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.