Power Corp of Canada Makes New $302,000 Investment in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX)

Power Corp of Canada acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX – Get Rating) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,043 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $302,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,243,060 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,308,875,000 after buying an additional 105,908 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,132,336 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,118,657,000 after acquiring an additional 293,861 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 27.1% in the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,753,011 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,720,832,000 after acquiring an additional 3,571,298 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,294,791 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,559,834,000 after purchasing an additional 30,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,157,954 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,493,458,000 after purchasing an additional 195,271 shares during the last quarter. 90.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on VRTX shares. SVB Leerink cut their price objective on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $374.00 to $365.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. SVB Securities decreased their price objective on Vertex Pharmaceuticals from $374.00 to $365.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $340.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, December 19th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday. They set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $296.00 target price on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertex Pharmaceuticals news, Director Yuchun Lee sold 442 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.17, for a total transaction of $137,979.14. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,875 shares in the company, valued at $585,318.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Vertex Pharmaceuticals news, Director Yuchun Lee sold 442 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.17, for a total transaction of $137,979.14. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,875 shares in the company, valued at $585,318.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Charles F. Wagner, Jr. sold 2,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.83, for a total value of $783,350.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 53,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,684,351.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,916 shares of company stock worth $12,466,970. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 0.3 %

Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $294.27 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $75.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.49. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a 52 week low of $233.01 and a 52 week high of $325.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $298.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $298.91. The company has a quick ratio of 4.66, a current ratio of 4.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The pharmaceutical company reported $3.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.65. The firm had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 27.78% and a net margin of 37.20%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.18 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 12.44 earnings per share for the current year.

About Vertex Pharmaceuticals

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Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a global biotechnology company, which engages in the business of discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing small molecule drugs for patients with serious diseases. The firm focuses on development and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, infectious diseases including viral infections such as influenza and bacterial infections, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and neurological disorders including pain and multiple sclerosis.