Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Acquires New Stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in VERX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Vertex by 4.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,791,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,929,000 after buying an additional 235,407 shares during the period. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Vertex by 2.3% during the first quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 1,386,848 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,046,000 after buying an additional 30,523 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its position in Vertex by 551.9% during the second quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,231,000 after buying an additional 803,881 shares during the period. Pembroke Management LTD lifted its position in Vertex by 255.3% during the first quarter. Pembroke Management LTD now owns 927,129 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,446,000 after buying an additional 666,223 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Vertex by 8.1% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 782,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,217,000 after buying an additional 58,678 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VERX opened at $36.73 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 918.25, a PEG ratio of 10.68 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. Vertex, Inc. has a one year low of $21.50 and a one year high of $40.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.18.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In other Vertex news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 16,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $777,778.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 16,000 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.95, for a total value of $575,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $777,778.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,500,000 shares of Vertex 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,875,976.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,699,900 shares of company stock worth $64,107,653 in the last 90 days. 45.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.