Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) was upgraded by investment analysts at Vetr from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, July 31st. The brokerage presently has a $181.00 target price on the pharmaceutical company’s stock. Vetr‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.85% from the stock’s current price.
VRTX has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James Financial, Inc. upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. J P Morgan Chase & Co set a $175.00 price target on Vertex Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. raised their price target on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $162.88.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) opened at 148.54 on Monday. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $71.46 and a 12 month high of $167.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 142.69 and a beta of 1.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $146.13 and its 200 day moving average is $117.35.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $544.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $489.95 million. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 4.64% and a net margin of 12.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.24 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Vertex Pharmaceuticals will post $1.60 earnings per share for the current year.
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In other news, CEO Jeffrey M. Leiden sold 216,624 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.96, for a total transaction of $34,867,799.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 400,266 shares in the company, valued at $64,426,815.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey M. Leiden sold 147,101 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.50, for a total value of $19,049,579.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 312,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,422,389. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 751,042 shares of company stock valued at $113,078,257. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.
A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 2,699.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 19,246,380 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,104,591,000 after buying an additional 18,558,874 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 253.8% in the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,055,122 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $651,454,000 after buying an additional 3,626,368 shares during the period. Old Mutual Global Investors UK Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 1,384.7% in the second quarter. Old Mutual Global Investors UK Ltd. now owns 1,195,455 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $154,058,000 after buying an additional 1,114,939 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 3.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,474,890 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,801,530,000 after buying an additional 560,796 shares during the period. Finally, AJO LP bought a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at about $71,956,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.89% of the company’s stock.
About Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is engaged in discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing medicines for serious diseases. The Company is focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) and advancing its research and development programs in other indications.
To view Vetr’s full report, visit Vetr’s official website.
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