Ellsworth Advisors LLC Purchases 584 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,291 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 584 shares during the period. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Vertex were worth $922,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,173,000. Brown Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Vertex during the third quarter valued at approximately $20,938,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its stake in Vertex by 787.0% in the 3rd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 524,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,280,000 after buying an additional 465,610 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vertex by 40.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,450,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,863,000 after buying an additional 414,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Vertex by 36.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,361,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,447,000 after buying an additional 363,595 shares in the last quarter. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VERX has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Vertex in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.36.

Vertex Price Performance

Shares of VERX stock opened at $56.40 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 313.33, a P/E/G ratio of 7.64 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $53.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.88. Vertex, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.17 and a fifty-two week high of $57.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04.

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

Insider Activity at Vertex

In related news, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total value of $121,516,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $386,065.50. This represents a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 40,966 shares of Vertex stock in a transaction 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 approximately $72,457,229.44. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,578,219 shares of company stock valued at $179,270,309 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 44.58% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Company Profile

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.