JMP Securities Reiterates “Market Outperform” Rating for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating restated by stock analysts at JMP Securities in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $42.00 target price on the stock. JMP Securities’ price target suggests a potential upside of 45.28% from the company’s previous close.

VERX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Vertex from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Vertex from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Vertex from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Vertex from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Vertex from $40.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.67.

Vertex Price Performance

NASDAQ:VERX opened at $28.91 on Tuesday. Vertex has a 52 week low of $17.59 and a 52 week high of $35.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of -289.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.98.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. Vertex had a positive return on equity of 16.15% and a negative net margin of 2.29%. The firm had revenue of $154.91 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.44 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Vertex will post 0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Vertex

In other news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 6,500 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $191,620.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $469,616.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 6,967 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.04, for a total transaction of $209,288.68. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,242,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,333,501.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John Richard Stamm sold 6,500 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $191,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $469,616.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,161,048 shares of company stock worth $35,034,678 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 45.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. RiverPark Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the third quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI raised its position in Vertex by 22.4% in the third quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 2,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $72,000. Finally, F M Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the first quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

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.