Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $40.67, but opened at $39.00. Vertex shares last traded at $37.91, with a volume of 748,962 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VERX. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Vertex from $62.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vertex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $58.00 to $31.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Vertex from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Vertex from $62.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Vertex from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.73.

Vertex Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $38.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 209.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.02. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $177.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.99 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. Vertex’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex

In other Vertex news, CAO Ryan J. Leib sold 5,755 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total value of $218,690.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 43,228 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.98, for a total transaction of $1,555,343.44. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,749.36. The trade was a 99.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 158,398 shares of company stock worth $5,898,979 over the last ninety days. 43.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertex

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vertex during the 1st quarter worth approximately $8,744,000. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Vertex by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 84,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,946,000 after purchasing an additional 4,477 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Vertex in the first quarter valued at about $690,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in Vertex by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 81,935 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,869,000 after acquiring an additional 3,461 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EFG Asset Management North America Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Vertex in the first quarter worth $1,895,000. 70.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.