Investors in cash trouble should check out Vertex Energy Inc (VTNR)

Vertex Energy Inc (NASDAQ: VTNR) stock jumped 1.05% on Monday to $3.84 against a previous-day closing price of $3.80. With 2.65 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 1.91 million shares. During the session, the Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing company that operates in wider Energy sector, reached to the highest price of $4.0300 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $3.8200. The 52-week range on VTNR shows that it touched its highest point at $11.20 and its lowest point at $3.60 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $6.83. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.87.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of VTNR was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 1.86%, but this was down by -17.60% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -5.88% while six-month performance fell -45.14%. The stock lost -53.62% in the past year, while it has lost -38.06% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for VTNR yields -0.22 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.29. For the next quarter, that number is 0.04. This implies an EPS growth rate of -304.39% for this year and 200.86% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 20.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 27.09%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 93.51 million VTNR shares are outstanding with a float of 82.03 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 19.18 million, which was 20.51% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Mr. Benjamin P. Cowart as the firm’s Founder, Chairman, CEO & President, Mr. Christopher Carlson serves as its Chief Financial Officer.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 41.04% of VTNR’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 9.41% of VTNR, in contrast to 31.72% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 19.08%. As the largest shareholder in VTNR with 6.41% of the stake, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. holds 5,978,739 shares worth 5,978,739. A second-largest stockholder of VTNR, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 4,904,353 shares, controlling over 5.26% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in VTNR, holding 4,399,470 shares or 4.72% stake. With a 5.02% stake in VTNR, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & is the largest stakeholder. A total of 4,683,947 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 3.16% of VTNR stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 2,948,032 shares valued at 12.71 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF holds 1.62% of the stake in VTNR, owning 1,510,215 shares worth 6.51 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for VTNR since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With VTNR analysts setting a high price target of $9.50 and a low target of $4.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $6.83. Based on these targets, VTNR could surge 147.4% to reach the target high and rise by 4.17% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 77.86% from current levels.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded VTNR stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 15 while that of sell transactions has risen to 9 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 559,290 while 337,295 shares were sold.