Vertex Pharmaceuticals Earnings Preview

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) came in right in line with the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors are hoping that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, April 26. Vertex Pharmaceuticals is engaged in the business of discovering, developing and commercializing small molecule drugs for the treatment of serious diseases.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Vertex Pharmaceuticals as eight analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts like Vertex Pharmaceuticals better than competitor Human Genome overall.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $456.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 519.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.58 per share. Estimates range from $0.39 to $0.81.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 91.5% awarding it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community backs the All-Stars, with 91.7% granting it a rating of "outperform." The three posts Fools have logged over the past month reveal that they are keen on Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. For four quarters in a row, the company has seen increases in net margins year-over-year. Net margins reflect what percentage of revenue becomes profit. Here are Vertex Pharmaceuticals' reported margins for the last four quarters:

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