Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC Grows Position in Vertex, Inc. $VERX

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) by 15.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,398,435 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 450,695 shares during the period. Vertex makes up 1.8% of Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC owned about 2.14% of Vertex worth $120,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VERX. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 63.0% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,429,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,054,000 after purchasing an additional 939,031 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Vertex during the 1st quarter worth about $27,399,000. Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 42.1% during the 1st quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 2,043,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,533,000 after purchasing an additional 605,617 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 46.9% during the 1st quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,511,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,128,000 after purchasing an additional 482,669 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Pictet & Cie SA boosted its stake in shares of Vertex by 63.5% during the 1st quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 1,003,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,131,000 after purchasing an additional 389,907 shares during the period. 70.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $60.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Vertex in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vertex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.71.

Vertex Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of VERX opened at $24.33 on Monday. Vertex, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.13 and a 1-year high of $60.71. The company has a 50-day moving average of $25.05 and a 200 day moving average of $32.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.73, a PEG ratio of 5.02 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. Vertex had a negative net margin of 7.09% and a positive return on equity of 27.16%. The firm had revenue of $184.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $184.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Vertex, Inc. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

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.