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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Stock Falls Amid Market Uptick: What Investors Need to Know

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In the latest trading session, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX - Free Report) closed at $469.68, marking a -2.99% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.01%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.55%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.44%.

The drugmaker's shares have seen an increase of 8.89% over the last month, surpassing the Medical sector's gain of 2.01% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.86%.

The upcoming earnings release of Vertex Pharmaceuticals will be of great interest to investors. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $5.05, showcasing a 26.88% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $3.16 billion, showing a 8.65% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

VRTX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.4 per share and revenue of $11.98 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4280.95% and 0%, respectively.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% lower within the past month. Vertex Pharmaceuticals presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.25 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.11, which means Vertex Pharmaceuticals is trading at a premium to the group.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 107, this industry ranks in the top 44% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.


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