Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) first-quarter earnings and revenue beat estimates

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) came out with quarterly earnings of $2.98 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.77 per share. For comparison, a year earlier earnings per share were $2.56. These numbers have been adjusted for one-off items.

This quarterly report presented an earnings surprise of 7.58%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this drugmaker would post earnings of $2.65 per share when it actually produced earnings of $2.51, delivering a surprise of -5.28%.

The company has topped consensus EPS estimates three times over the last four quarters.

Vertex, which belongs to the Zacks Medical – Biomedical and Genetics industry, posted revenues of $1.72 billion for the quarter ended March 2021, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.87%. For comparison, year-ago revenues were $1.52 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the immediate share price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will largely depend on management’s commentary on the earnings call.

Vertex shares have lost about 9.7% since the beginning of the year compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 11.4%.

What’s next for Vertex?

While Vertex has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors’ minds is: what’s next for the stock?

There are no simple answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this issue is the company’s earnings prospects. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Prior to the earnings release, the estimate revision trend for Vertex was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions may change following the company’s just-released earnings report, the current status translates into the stock’s Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Therefore, it can be expected that the company’s shares will underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the next quarters and the current fiscal year change in the coming days. The current consensus EPS estimate is $2.80 on revenue of $1.7 billion for the coming quarter and $11.33 on revenue of $6.88 billion for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be aware that the outlook for the industry may also have a significant impact on share prices. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, the Medical Biomedical and Genetics industry is currently in the bottom 20% of the 250+ Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

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