MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 836 Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

MetLife Investment Management LLC lowered its position in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 21,405 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 836 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in WEX were worth $4,489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WEX. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in WEX by 124.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 40,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,572,000 after acquiring an additional 22,638 shares during the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA raised its stake in shares of WEX by 5.6% in the second quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 914,250 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $173,561,000 after buying an additional 48,182 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of WEX during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,253,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of WEX by 256.6% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 11,765 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,084,000 after acquiring an additional 8,466 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new stake in WEX in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,227,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at WEX

In other news, CFO Jagtar Narula sold 508 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $101,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,424,000. This represents a 6.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WEX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of WEX from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on WEX from $285.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of WEX from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America lifted their price target on WEX from $238.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of WEX from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, WEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.91.

WEX Stock Performance

NYSE WEX opened at $188.66 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $194.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $187.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.57. WEX Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $165.51 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.53. WEX had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 31.35%. The company had revenue of $665.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $688.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.44 earnings per share. WEX’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that WEX Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current year.

WEX Company Profile

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.