Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Stock Price Down 6.1% – Time to Sell?

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) traded down 6.1% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $32.10 and last traded at $31.99. 281,648 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 906,744 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VERX has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Vertex Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 180.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.60.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $178.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.90 million. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $30,480,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $418,513.95. This trade represents a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David Destefano sold 216,268 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.04, for a total transaction of $11,903,390.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 293,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,145,708.80. The trade was a 42.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 858,457 shares of company stock valued at $46,160,958 in the last 90 days. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertex

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairman Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $327,000. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,363,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Vertex by 406.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after buying an additional 27,602 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the third quarter worth approximately $840,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. purchased a new position in shares of Vertex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,135,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

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.