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Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) closed the most recent trading day at $217.13, moving +0.55% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.41%.

Coming into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 1.39% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 3.28%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.07%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from VRTX as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect VRTX to post earnings of $2.74 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.03%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.66 billion, up 9.49% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.26 per share and revenue of $6.87 billion, which would represent changes of +9.11% and +10.68%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for VRTX should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. VRTX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that VRTX has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.18 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 25.58.

We can also see that VRTX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.68. 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 1.46 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 191, putting it in the bottom 25% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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