Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) had its price objective lifted by Morgan Stanley from $50.00 to $62.00 in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on VERX. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Vertex from $41.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Vertex from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Vertex Stock Performance

Shares of VERX stock opened at $49.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $7.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 272.78, a P/E/G ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 0.67. Vertex has a 52 week low of $23.31 and a 52 week high of $52.93. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.32.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. Vertex’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.06 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John Richard Stamm sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 21,635 shares in the company, valued at $777,778.25. This represents a 42.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO John R. Schwab sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.81, for a total value of $895,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 53,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,654.24. This trade represents a 32.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,149,374 shares of company stock worth $187,345,650. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Vertex by 13.6% in the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 712,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,643,000 after acquiring an additional 85,237 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the second quarter worth about $22,173,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in Vertex by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 92,167 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,927,000 after purchasing an additional 18,258 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Vertex by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,940,000 after purchasing an additional 22,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,824,000. 59.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.