Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) Receives $563.50 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $563.50.

VRTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $560.00 to $565.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $590.00 to $595.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $543.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Ourania Tatsis sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.99, for a total transaction of $787,485.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 45,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,793,071.79. This trade represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CMO Carmen Bozic sold 4,062 shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $450.00, for a total transaction of $1,827,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer owned 16,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,628,850. The trade was a 19.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 10,464 shares of company stock worth $4,959,397 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of VRTX. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 50,904.3% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 190,491,484 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $94,622,835,000 after purchasing an additional 190,118,003 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,975,849,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 17,316,344 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,850,544,000 after acquiring an additional 763,063 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,689,539 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,299,569,000 after acquiring an additional 83,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,733,596 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,146,041,000 after acquiring an additional 44,537 shares during the last quarter. 90.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of VRTX stock opened at $547.29 on Monday. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $374.17 and a 12-month high of $555.69. The company has a market capitalization of $138.90 billion, a PE ratio of 31.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $498.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $467.66.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.74 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 35.00% and a return on equity of 23.09%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Vertex Pharmaceuticals will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

About Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc is a Boston-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies for serious diseases. Founded in 1989, Vertex built its reputation on research-driven drug development and is best known for its work in cystic fibrosis (CF), where its portfolio of small-molecule CFTR modulators transformed standards of care for many people with the disease. The company operates research and development, manufacturing and commercial organizations and serves patients and healthcare systems in multiple international markets.

Vertex’s marketed products center on CFTR modulators that target the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis rather than just treating symptoms.