Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Raises Stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,279 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $1,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, October 21st. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $575.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $480.00 to $486.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $437.00 to $451.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $550.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $505.73.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $468.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -235.22 and a beta of 0.36. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a twelve month low of $391.01 and a twelve month high of $519.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $473.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $476.47.

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

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.