Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Reduces Position in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P reduced its position in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,565,994 shares of the company’s stock after selling 35,921 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Vertex were worth $60,307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VERX. Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its holdings in Vertex by 551.9% during the 2nd quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 949,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,231,000 after buying an additional 803,881 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter worth about $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex during the third quarter worth approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its holdings in Vertex by 787.0% in the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,280,000 after purchasing an additional 465,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Vertex by 40.1% in the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 414,945 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VERX. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report 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. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.30.

Insider Transactions at Vertex

In other news, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 40,966 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.16, for a total value of $2,136,786.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,389,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $72,457,229.44. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 1,225,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.42, for a total value of $48,289,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $311,220.90. This represents a 99.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,171,822 shares of company stock worth $191,086,808. Company insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Stock Up 0.7 %

VERX opened at $53.83 on Monday. Vertex, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.31 and a 52 week high of $54.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $43.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $8.40 billion, a PE ratio of 299.06, a P/E/G ratio of 10.10 and a beta of 0.67.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $165.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

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.