Peregrine Capital Management LLC Has $8.47 Million Stock Holdings in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX)

Peregrine Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 48,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 862 shares during the quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC owned about 0.12% of WEX worth $8,469,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of WEX by 672.7% in the 3rd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 154,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,305,000 after purchasing an additional 134,099 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of WEX by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,555,507 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $326,237,000 after buying an additional 125,262 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of WEX by 328.6% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 127,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after acquiring an additional 97,807 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position in WEX by 82.2% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 175,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after buying an additional 79,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. increased its holdings in shares of WEX by 61.3% during the 3rd quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 149,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,321,000 after acquiring an additional 56,775 shares during the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on WEX. Bank of America downgraded WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $172.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on WEX from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho lowered their price target on WEX from $215.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on WEX from $200.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WEX presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $199.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at WEX

In other news, COO Robert Joseph Deshaies sold 175 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.44, for a total value of $33,152.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,582 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,334.08. This represents a 2.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

WEX Price Performance

WEX opened at $154.80 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $173.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.68. WEX Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.03 and a 12-month high of $244.04.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.16. WEX had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 32.35%. Equities analysts predict that WEX Inc. will post 14.27 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.