KBC Group NV Acquires 13,360 Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated $VRTX

KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 11.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 132,665 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,360 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $59,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VRTX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 72.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,917,227 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,414,331,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226,527 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 21.5% in the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 6,151,505 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,738,650,000 after buying an additional 1,089,063 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $484,053,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 28.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,775,194 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $860,650,000 after acquiring an additional 398,460 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 456.9% in the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 431,804 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $209,347,000 after acquiring an additional 354,269 shares in the last quarter. 90.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VRTX. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $424.00 to $411.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets set a $530.00 price target on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $458.00 to $456.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $408.00 to $414.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $489.10.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

VRTX opened at $434.19 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $110.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04 and a beta of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $406.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $428.20. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a twelve month low of $362.50 and a twelve month high of $519.68.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.58 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.05 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 31.86% and a return on equity of 23.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.38 EPS. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 15.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.