Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated $VRTX Shares Bought by Wealthfront Advisers LLC

Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 7.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 46,395 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,226 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $20,717,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Navigation Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth approximately $311,000. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 510 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Midwest Professional Planners LTD. boosted its position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Midwest Professional Planners LTD. now owns 3,549 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,586,427 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $708,403,000 after buying an additional 58,841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 3,014 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,346,000 after buying an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. 90.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Carmen Bozic sold 596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $482.50, for a total value of $287,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer directly owned 15,337 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,400,102.50. This represents a 3.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Sangeeta N. Bhatia sold 318 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.73, for a total transaction of $134,746.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,086,446.52. This trade represents a 6.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 18,874 shares of company stock worth $8,707,966. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings cut Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $607.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $543.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $612.00 to $616.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vertex Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $559.61.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ VRTX opened at $486.03 on Friday. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $362.50 and a fifty-two week high of $533.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $461.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $458.82. The stock has a market cap of $123.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.29.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $2.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 35.51% and a return on equity of 23.86%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.06 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 17.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.