Media stories about Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) have trended somewhat positive this week, according to Accern. The research firm ranks the sentiment of press coverage by monitoring more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Vertex Pharmaceuticals earned a media sentiment score of 0.22 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media coverage about the pharmaceutical company an impact score of 46.4499421171625 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.
These are some of the headlines that may have impacted Accern Sentiment’s analysis:
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) Downgraded by BidaskClub to Hold (americanbankingnews.com)
- 3 Stocks That Could Put Alibaba’s Returns to Shame (fool.com)
- ETFs with exposure to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. : August 15, 2017 (finance.yahoo.com)
- Vertex Pharm Up 96.5% Since SmarTrend Uptrend Call (VRTX) (mysmartrend.com)
- Why Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) Stock Isn’t Worth the Risk - Investorplace.com (investorplace.com)
VRTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. TheStreet upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $126.00 price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Maxim Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $143.00 price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, April 28th. UBS AG reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $135.00 price target (up from $132.00) on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $162.88.
Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) opened at 148.13 on Friday. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $71.46 and a 12-month high of $167.86. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $146.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $117.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 142.30 and a beta of 1.77.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.33. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 4.64%. The company had revenue of $544.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $489.95 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.24 earnings per share. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Vertex Pharmaceuticals will post $1.60 EPS for the current year.
In related news, EVP Stuart A. Arbuckle sold 70,969 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.06, for a total transaction of $9,088,290.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 145,061 shares in the company, valued at $18,576,511.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Amit Sachdev sold 28,625 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.93, for a total transaction of $4,606,621.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 119,335 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,204,581.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 751,042 shares of company stock worth $113,078,257 in the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
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.
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