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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $185.09, moving +0.44% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.21% gain on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 8.47% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 1.83% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.9% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from VRTX as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, VRTX is projected to report earnings of $3.08 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.67%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.84 billion, up 19.31% from the year-ago period.

VRTX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $12.37 per share and revenue of $7.25 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +19.86% and +16.81%, respectively.

Investors might also notice 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. VRTX is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that VRTX has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.9 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 25.57.

Investors should also note that VRTX has a PEG ratio of 1.52 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Medical - Biomedical and Genetics stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.6 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 199, putting it in the bottom 22% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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