Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC Buys 174 Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 17.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,168 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in WEX were worth $205,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WEX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in WEX by 105.8% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,046,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $358,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052,087 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in WEX in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,535,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its stake in WEX by 1,684.2% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 201,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,401,000 after buying an additional 190,605 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC raised its stake in WEX by 113.0% in the fourth quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 318,272 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,799,000 after buying an additional 168,832 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in WEX in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,689,000. Institutional investors own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WEX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on WEX from $172.00 to $138.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on WEX from $215.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $186.00 target price on WEX in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on WEX from $200.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $182.40.

WEX Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:WEX opened at $139.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.26. WEX Inc. has a 1 year low of $110.45 and a 1 year high of $217.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $160.54.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.40 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $636.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $631.42 million. WEX had a return on equity of 32.35% and a net margin of 11.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that WEX Inc. will post 14.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About WEX

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.