Vertex Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) is one of the 11 Best Beaten Down Growth Stocks to Buy Now.
Piper Sandler, on February 3, downgraded its call on Vertex to Neutral from Overweight as a new analyst assumed coverage of the stock. The firm also cut its target price by 37.5% to $20 (from $32). Concerns about seat compression due to the impact of artificial intelligence, specifically vibe coding, were key reasons for the rating downgrade and target price cut. Piper Sandler emphasized that its decision does not reflect the firm’s conviction regarding Vertex’s upcoming Q4 earnings, which are scheduled to be released on February 11.
For context, on January 30, Anthropic launched plugins for Claude Cowork, which would “tailor Claude to specific job functions like sales, legal, and financial analysis.” As part of the launch, Anthropic released 11 open-source plugins (Productivity, Enterprise Search, Plugin Create, Sales, Finance, Data, Legal, Marketing, Customer Support, Product Management, and Biology Research) for all paid users.
This release erased $285 billion in market capitalization for software, financial services, and asset management stocks, according to Bloomberg. Thomas Shipp, LPL Financial’s head of equity research, speaking to investors, said:
Why do I need to pay for software, the thinking goes, if internal development of these systems now takes developers less time with AI?
Vertex’s stock price fell 20.3% to $14.78 (from $18.55) because of this news, before rebounding slightly to $15.73. Despite the sell-off as well as the recent downgrade from Piper Sandler, most analysts are still convinced that Vertex is a good investment. The median target price, according to CNN, is $25.50, which implies an upside of 62.11%.
Vertex Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) is a provider of tax compliance software solutions for enterprises and mid-market companies. The company is located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and was established in 1978 by Ray and Antoinette Westphal.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Vertex Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than VERX and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 12 Best Cheap Stocks to Buy Right Now and Cathie Wood’s Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks to Buy.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
