How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX Quick QuoteVRTX - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to VRTX for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Vertex Pharmaceuticals' Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Vertex Pharmaceuticals' main business drivers.

Boston, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule drugs targeting serious diseases. The company’s main area of focus is cystic fibrosis (CF).

The company’s portfolio includes five medicines that treat the underlying cause of CF. These include Trikafta (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor), Symdeko/Symkevi (tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor), Orkambi (lumacaftor/ivacaftor), Kalydeco (ivacaftor) and Alyftrek (vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor). Its five medicines are collectively approved to treat nearly 95% of all people living with CF in core markets.

In 2023/early 2024, Vertex received regulatory approvals for its one-shot gene therapy, Casgevy, for treating two debilitating blood disorders, sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT), in the United States, European Union and some other countries. Journavx (suzetrigine), Vertex’s non-opioid NaV1.8 pain signal inhibitor, was approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain in January 2025.

Vertex is also developing treatments for acute and peripheral neuropathic pain, APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD), IgA nephropathy (IgAN), primary membranous nephropathy (pMN), type 1 diabetes and other B-cell-mediated diseases, myotonic dystrophy type 1 and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).

The company recorded total revenues of $12 billion in 2025, up 9% year over year. Trikafta/Kaftrio accounted for around 86% of the company’s total product revenues and generated $10.3 billion in sales in 2025.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Vertex Pharmaceuticals ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in July 2016 would be worth $5,581.16, or a gain of 458.12%, as of July 10, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

The S&P 500 rose 254.18% and the price of gold increased 189.75% over the same time frame in comparison.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for VRTX.

Vertex's cystic franchise sales continue to grow, driven by higher sales of Trikafta and increasing contribution from Alyftrek. Among its newly launched products, the uptake of Journavx and Casgevy has been slower than expected. However, Vertex expects significant growth in Journavx and Casgevy's sales in 2026. Vertex is rapidly advancing its diverse late-stage pipeline with five programs in pivotal development, setting the stage for several potential new drug approvals in a couple of years. Its candidates for kidney diseases are capturing investor attention, mainly povetacicept. However, high dependence on just the CF franchise for revenues is a worry. CF sales are slightly slowing down. Recent pipeline setbacks are a concern. Estimates look stable ahead of Q2 results. Vertex has a mixed record of earnings surprises in recent quarters.

The stock is up 11.56% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 4 higher, for fiscal 2026. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.