West Oak Capital LLC Purchases 5,403 Shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX)

West Oak Capital LLC increased its stake in Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 270,150.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,405 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,403 shares during the quarter. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Vertex were worth $288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its stake in Vertex by 29.4% in the 3rd quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 933,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,932,000 after buying an additional 211,896 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Vertex by 17.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,690,045 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,444,000 after purchasing an additional 253,263 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the third quarter worth approximately $2,354,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Vertex by 3.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,275,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,121,000 after acquiring an additional 37,592 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Vertex by 5.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 582,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,424,000 after acquiring an additional 29,700 shares during the period. 70.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VERX has been the topic of a number of research reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of Vertex in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.36.

Vertex Stock Down 1.5 %

Vertex stock traded down $0.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $52.16. 924,414 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 922,702. The company has a market cap of $8.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 289.78, a P/E/G ratio of 9.83 and a beta of 0.77. Vertex, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.31 and a twelve month high of $57.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $52.45 and a 200-day moving average of $42.97.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a net margin of 4.73% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The company had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Vertex

In related news, insider Jeffrey Westphal sold 575,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $418,513.95. This represents a 98.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Item Second Irr. Trust Fbo Kyl sold 13,346 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.13, for a total transaction of $735,764.98. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,344,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $74,136,288.02. This represents a 0.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,634,638 shares of company stock valued at $181,570,512 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 44.58% 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.