Maxim Downgrades Vertex Pharmaceuticals After Earnings

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Analysts at Maxim Group downgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc VRTX today from Buy to Hold and lowered their price target for the stock from $148.00 to $121.00 after the company released a their Q4 earnings report yesterday. Vertex is a small-molecule drug developer and manufacturer.
The numbers
Vertex reported an earnings loss of $0.55 per share on revenue of $144.56 for the quarter. These numbers were both slightly better than consensus estimates. However, revenue for the quarter was down 58.8 percent year-over-year.
Insider selling
Throughout the month of January, seven different Vertex insiders have sold nearly $9 million worth of Vertex stock at prices ranging from $118 to $126 per share. This level of insider selling was fairly typical for Vertex throughout 2014.
Upside potential
Vertex shares are trading down 7.6 percent today after the earnings release. Maxim’s current price target of $121 represents about an eight percent upside for the stock after today’s big drop. The post-earnings sell-off has moved Vertex stock into the red for the year. After climbing more than 60 percent in 2014 to new all-time highs, Vertex stock is down about six percent now in 2015.
Other analyst action
Maxim is not the only firm to weigh in on Vertex recently. Analysts at Needham also downgraded Vertex today from Buy to Hold today after they didn’t see what they were hoping to see in the earnings report. Back in November, CRT Capital initiated coverage of Vertex with a Buy rating and a $175 target for the stock.

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