Retirement Systems of Alabama Purchases 15,630 Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 249,987 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,630 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals were worth $101,717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Little House Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 58.8% in the fourth quarter. Little House Capital LLC now owns 2,320 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $944,000 after acquiring an additional 859 shares in the last quarter. Paradigm Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 227.1% in the fourth quarter. Paradigm Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,896 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,399 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 88.9% in the fourth quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 6,413 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,609,000 after acquiring an additional 3,018 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 4,709 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,916,000 after acquiring an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 1,080 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on VRTX shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 20th. Evercore ISI raised Vertex Pharmaceuticals from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $438.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, April 15th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $429.45.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRTX traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $397.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 682,467 shares, compared to its average volume of 909,553. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a 12 month low of $320.01 and a 12 month high of $448.40. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $411.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $398.93. The company has a market cap of $102.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 3.99 and a quick ratio of 3.78.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The pharmaceutical company reported $4.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.85 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 21.91% and a net margin of 36.68%. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 14.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertex Pharmaceuticals

In other Vertex Pharmaceuticals news, COO Stuart A. Arbuckle sold 4,295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $420.24, for a total transaction of $1,804,930.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,819,732.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Vertex Pharmaceuticals news, COO Stuart A. Arbuckle sold 4,295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $420.24, for a total transaction of $1,804,930.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,819,732.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Ourania Tatsis sold 480 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $420.79, for a total value of $201,979.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 59,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,174,603.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,381 shares of company stock worth $5,203,249 in the last three months. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biotechnology company, engages in developing and commercializing therapies for treating cystic fibrosis (CF). It markets TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO for people with CF with at least one F508del mutation for 2 years of age or older; SYMDEKO/SYMKEVI for people with CF for 6 years of age or older; ORKAMBI for CF patients 1 year or older; and KALYDECO for the treatment of patients with 1 year or older who have CF with ivacaftor.