Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) Trading 5.7% Higher – Should You Buy?

Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)’s share price traded up 5.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $20.63 and last traded at $20.56. 1,080,884 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 1,420,351 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.46.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on VERX shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Vertex in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup cut shares of Vertex from a “market outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Vertex from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. JMP Securities set a $37.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Vertex from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.60.

Vertex Trading Down 1.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $21.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.36. The company has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -57.51, a P/E/G ratio of 4.15 and a beta of 0.68.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $192.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $191.62 million. Vertex had a negative net margin of 7.32% and a positive return on equity of 26.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertex announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, November 3rd that permits the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERX. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Vertex by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 8,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in Vertex by 11.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 129,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,527,000 after buying an additional 13,600 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex during the first quarter valued at approximately $5,120,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Vertex by 63.0% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,429,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,054,000 after acquiring an additional 939,031 shares during the period. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the 1st quarter worth $8,744,000. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.