Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) Holdings Raised by Cooper Financial Group

Cooper Financial Group boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,682 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $1,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $240,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 6,372 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,987,000 after buying an additional 863 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 69.1% in the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 24,368 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $11,422,000 after buying an additional 9,957 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer cut Vertex Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $566.00 to $520.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $361.00 to $408.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $509.00 to $418.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.38.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRTX traded up $2.75 during trading on Monday, hitting $412.31. 968,157 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,426,136. The stock has a market cap of $106.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -207.19 and a beta of 0.40. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $377.85 and a fifty-two week high of $519.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $448.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $467.95. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.67 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post -1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.