Swiss National Bank Sells 200 Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Swiss National Bank trimmed its holdings in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 0.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 81,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in WEX were worth $17,161,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WEX. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its stake in WEX by 672.7% in the 3rd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 154,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,305,000 after purchasing an additional 134,099 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in WEX by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 495,527 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $87,772,000 after purchasing an additional 126,663 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in WEX by 328.6% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 127,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,755,000 after purchasing an additional 97,807 shares during the period. Distillate Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of WEX during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $13,950,000. Finally, HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in shares of WEX by 61.3% during the 3rd quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 149,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,321,000 after acquiring an additional 56,775 shares during the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WEX. Bank of America increased their target price on WEX from $238.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on WEX from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. William Blair upgraded WEX to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.91.

WEX Stock Performance

NYSE:WEX opened at $185.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $196.27 and its 200 day moving average is $188.29. WEX Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $165.51 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.57.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.53. WEX had a return on equity of 31.35% and a net margin of 12.45%. The business had revenue of $665.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $688.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that WEX Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WEX news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 508 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $101,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 7,120 shares in the company, valued at $1,424,000. This trade represents a 6.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.