SSgA Funds Management, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Vertex Energy Inc (NASDAQ:VTNR). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Energy company by 3.78% to 5.98 million shares with purchase of 0.22 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.39% valued currently at $20.21 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 1.18 million to 4.9 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors has lifted its position by 5.96% or 0.25 million shares – to 4.4 million shares.
With over 4.25 million Vertex Energy Inc (VTNR) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $2.17 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $9.22 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -66.62% and its price on 01/09/24 lost nearly -2.69%. Currently, there are 93.51M common shares owned by the public and among those 84.69M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 7 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VTNR have a consensus price objective of $6.50. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $9.50 and a low of $4.00. The average price target is 66.62% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 45.75% over that period. But an upside of 77.16% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $6.75.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 25 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 15 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 559,290 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 10 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 437,295 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Vertex Energy Inc are SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration &, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, and iShares Russell 2000 ETF. SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & owns 4.98 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $16.84 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF bought 771.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.57 million shares at a value of $5.3 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF now owns shares totaling to 1.68% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Vertex Energy Inc (NASDAQ: VTNR) opened at $2.26, up $0.03 from a prior closing price of $2.23. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -10.70% and -50.11% over the past three months. VTNR shares are trading -35.99% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -64.94% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $2.12 and touched a high of $11.20 over the same period. VTNR has an average intraday trading volume of 2.79 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -32.03%, -39.18%, and -59.98% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Vertex Energy Inc (NASDAQ: VTNR) shares accounts for 50.38% of the company’s 93.51M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 30.03%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 9.37% and 20.39% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $202.92M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.70. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$0.22. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 8.65% over the week and 9.04% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Vertex Energy Inc (VTNR) will achieve an EPS of $0.06 for the current quarter, $0.04 for the next quarter and $0.4 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.14 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.37. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.71 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -386.03%, and 152.84% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 20.00% over the next five years, compared to 27.09% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 7 brokerage firm advisors rate Vertex Energy Inc (VTNR) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.14. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 7 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the VTNR, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Stifel stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on December 19, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $4.
