Assetmark Inc. Grows Stock Position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX)

Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 6.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 85,297 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,432 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $41,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VRTX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,427 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,783,000 after buying an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 757 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 438,091 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $178,351,000 after purchasing an additional 32,739 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 32.8% in the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 16,274 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,554,000 after purchasing an additional 4,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,359,000. 90.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on VRTX shares. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $420.00 target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $464.00 to $460.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $512.30.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

VRTX opened at $469.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 2.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a 52-week low of $377.85 and a 52-week high of $519.88. The company has a 50 day moving average of $453.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $464.68. The company has a market cap of $120.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -119.81 and a beta of 0.41.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.29 by ($0.23). The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.85 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 3.36% and a negative net margin of 8.91%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 15.63 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.