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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Zacks Equity Research

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) closed at $226.49 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.07% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.7%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.29%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.04%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the drugmaker had gained 3.81% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 2.27% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 4.38% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from VRTX as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.20, down 7.69% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $996.44 million, up 14.52% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for VRTX. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

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Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. VRTX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that VRTX has a Forward P/E ratio of 34.27 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 24.99, which means VRTX is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that VRTX has a PEG ratio of 1.17. 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. VRTX's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.63 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 78, putting it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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Zacks Investment Research