abrdn plc Increases Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

abrdn plc boosted its holdings in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 74.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,029,177 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 440,832 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Vertex were worth $55,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management raised its holdings in Vertex by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management now owns 15,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $806,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Vertex by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after acquiring an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Vertex by 126.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Vertex by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Trading Down 0.5 %

Vertex stock opened at $57.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.62. Vertex, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.17 and a 52-week high of $60.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 317.89, a PEG ratio of 8.46 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VERX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Vertex from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 53,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.48, for a total transaction of $3,041,052.64. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,229,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,428,435.36. The trade was a 4.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Jac sold 26,645 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.40, for a total value of $1,369,553.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 906,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,571,535.40. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,632,062 shares of company stock worth $182,311,362. 44.58% of the stock is owned by company 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.