In a report released yesterday, Whitney Ijem from Canaccord Genuity maintained a Hold rating on Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX – Research Report), with a price target of $424.00.
Whitney Ijem has given his Hold rating due to a combination of factors affecting Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company experienced a rare miss in both revenue and earnings per share this quarter, which was partly attributed to specific issues such as an intellectual property problem in Russia. Furthermore, the anticipated transition of Trikafta patients to Alyftrek is progressing slower than expected, and the launch of Journavx is not gaining momentum as initially hoped.
Another concern is the negative updates on Vertex’s pipeline, particularly for key programs like VX-264 for Type 1 Diabetes and VX-522 for Cystic Fibrosis. Although VX-522 is on a temporary pause, the lack of detailed information and the history of delivery-related tolerability issues in this area make the future of this program uncertain. Despite these challenges, Vertex still has four programs in pivotal development stages, but the timing for pivotal data readouts remains unclear. These factors collectively contribute to the Hold rating.
In another report released today, Barclays also maintained a Hold rating on the stock with a $499.00 price target.