Freestone Grove Partners LP Takes Position in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new stake in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 7,234 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,268,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of WEX during the 4th quarter worth $271,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in WEX by 5,562.2% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 151,125 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,117,000 after buying an additional 148,456 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in WEX by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 358,371 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $62,830,000 after buying an additional 51,617 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL increased its position in shares of WEX by 36.4% during the fourth quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 54,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,500,000 after acquiring an additional 14,453 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of WEX by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 872,734 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $153,008,000 after acquiring an additional 8,780 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on WEX shares. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird set a $186.00 price objective on WEX in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Bank of America lowered WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of WEX in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of WEX from $172.00 to $138.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $182.40.

WEX Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WEX opened at $124.35 on Friday. WEX Inc. has a 52 week low of $110.45 and a 52 week high of $217.47. The company’s 50 day moving average is $141.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.35. The company has a market cap of $4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 16.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $3.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.40 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $636.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $631.42 million. WEX had a return on equity of 32.35% and a net margin of 11.78%. WEX’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that WEX Inc. will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About WEX

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.