Analysts at Maxim Group downgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX 3.5% Thursday from Buy to Hold and lowered their price target from $148.00 to $121.00. The company released its Q4 earnings report on Wednesday.
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.
Vertex shares are trading down about 7 percent after the earnings release. Maxim’s price target of $121 represents about an 8 percent upside for the stock after Thursday’s big drop. The post-earnings selloff 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 6 percent now in 2015.
Shares traded recently at $112.94.
Maxim is not the only firm to weigh in on Vertex recently. Analysts at Needham also downgraded Vertex from Buy to Hold 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 price target.
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