Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) had its price target lowered by Barclays from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, AnalystRatingsNetwork.com reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the pharmaceutical company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, November 26th. Vetr upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $137.08 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, November 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, December 1st. They set a buy rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $144.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, HC Wainwright upgraded shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Vertex Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $147.67.

In other news, Director Yuchun Lee sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.19, for a total value of $141,963.75. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 625 shares in the company, valued at $78,868.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joshua S. Boger sold 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.23, for a total transaction of $1,291,992.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 345,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,894,631.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Janus Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 10.9% in the third quarter. Janus Capital Management now owns 1,090,945 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $113,611,000 after buying an additional 107,199 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 540,601 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $68,024,000 after buying an additional 28,747 shares during the period. Taylor Wealth Management Partners increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 90.7% in the fourth quarter. Taylor Wealth Management Partners now owns 45,631 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,742,000 after buying an additional 21,701 shares during the period. EQIS Capital Management increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 320.2% in the fourth quarter. EQIS Capital Management now owns 23,195 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,919,000 after buying an additional 17,675 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in Vertex Pharmaceuticals by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 160,051 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,139,000 after buying an additional 6,875 shares during the period.

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) opened at 92.76 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $111.24 and a 200 day moving average of $121.72. The firm’s market capitalization is $22.79 billion. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $81.98 and a 12-month high of $143.45.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 27th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.17. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.55) earnings per share. The firm earned $417.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $406.30 million. Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 189.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Vertex Pharmaceuticals will post $3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) is a global biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in the business of discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing small molecule drugs. The Company uses precision medicine approaches to create transformative drugs for patients with serious diseases in specialty markets. Vertex’s business is focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF). It is also engaged in other research and early-stage development programs, including programs in the areas of oncology and neurology. The Company’s product candidates include KALYDECO (ivacaftor), Lumacaftor in combination with Ivacaftor, VX-661 in combination with Ivacaftor, VX-803, VX-970 and VX-222. The Company’s product KALYDECO is available in the market.

12 Month Chart for NASDAQ:VRTX

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