Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated $VRTX Stock: Davis Investment Partners LLC Cuts Stake

Davis Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 41.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,354 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 953 shares during the quarter. Davis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VRTX. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at about $11,975,849,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 1.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,871,459 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,896,910,000 after purchasing an additional 141,320 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 1.1% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,247,658 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,613,209,000 after buying an additional 35,069 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 1.0% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,086,683 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,533,248,000 after buying an additional 29,287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $1,509,651,000. Institutional investors own 90.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on VRTX shares. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, September 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $594.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $665.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $596.44.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $547.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 2.34. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a 52 week low of $412.27 and a 52 week high of $568.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $523.05 and a 200-day moving average of $482.80.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 2nd. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.82 by ($0.06). Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 30.70% and a return on equity of 21.98%. The business had revenue of $3.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.80 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 16.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1989, it develops medicines for serious diseases, with a long-standing focus on cystic fibrosis (CF). Vertex’s CF treatments include medicines that target the underlying protein defect, such as Trikafta/Kaftrio, Alyftrek, Kalydeco, Orkambi and Symdeko/Symkevi. The company also markets Journavx, a non-opioid medicine for acute pain, and partnered with CRISPR Therapeutics to develop Casgevy, a gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.