Yahoo Finance Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) closed at $334.11 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.46% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.12% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.13%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.09%.
Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 5.09% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 2.13% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.98% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Vertex Pharmaceuticals as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.84, up 6.67% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.41 billion, up 9.66% from the year-ago period.
VRTX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $14.51 per share and revenue of $9.73 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -2.49% and +8.98%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.47% higher. Vertex Pharmaceuticals is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a Forward P/E ratio of 22.93 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 19.42, which means Vertex Pharmaceuticals is trading at a premium to the group.
Also, we should mention that VRTX has a PEG ratio of 2.79. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.84 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
