Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) Downgraded by Oppenheimer to “Market Perform”

Oppenheimer lowered shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $480.00 to $486.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $490.00 to $494.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com cut shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $361.00 to $408.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $502.50.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 11.4 %

Shares of VRTX stock opened at $396.64 on Thursday. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $377.85 and a twelve month high of $519.88. The stock has a market cap of $102.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -199.32 and a beta of 0.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $472.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $475.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.61 by $0.77. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 4.52% and a negative return on equity of 1.91%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.67 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Vertex Pharmaceuticals will post -1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VRTX. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,816,249 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,495,501,000 after buying an additional 90,173 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,550,386 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,581,373,000 after acquiring an additional 851,054 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 17.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,798,870 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,231,858,000 after acquiring an additional 704,421 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,905,705 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,351,385,000 after acquiring an additional 159,693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,516,831 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,170,506,000 after purchasing an additional 100,114 shares during the last quarter. 90.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biotechnology company, engages in developing and commercializing therapies for treating cystic fibrosis (CF). It markets TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO for people with CF with at least one F508del mutation for 2 years of age or older; SYMDEKO/SYMKEVI for people with CF for 6 years of age or older; ORKAMBI for CF patients 1 year or older; and KALYDECO for the treatment of patients with 1 year or older who have CF with ivacaftor.