At a glance
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is worth $140.20B, about 36 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 8.9% to $12.00B in fiscal 2025, with 32.9% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 14.1% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $5.05B buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +30.0% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +25.0% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 19.4% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 19.2% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high within a month and 1 month after the lows.
The business in plain English
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company that develops and markets medicines for serious diseases. Its core business is cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited disease in which a faulty protein causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs. Vertex's CF medicines improve how that protein works. Its fiscal 2025 annual report says nearly three quarters of the roughly 97,000 people with CF in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada use them.
Vertex earns nearly all its money from product sales. It ships medicines mainly to a few specialty pharmacies and distributors, plus major U.S. wholesalers. Government health programs and insurers pay much of the cost. Revenue rose 8.9% to $12.0 billion in fiscal 2025. TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO, a three-drug CF combination, supplied 85.9%, and ALYFTREK, a newer once-daily CF drug, added 7%. The U.S. provided 62.9% of revenue, Europe 28.8% and other markets 8.3%.
Vertex is building businesses beyond CF. CASGEVY uses CRISPR gene editing on a patient's own stem cells as a potential one-time treatment for severe sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, two inherited blood disorders. In 2025, 64 people received infusions. JOURNAVX, a non-opioid pain pill approved in January 2025, made up 0.5% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Drug candidates in late-stage testing target kidney diseases, diabetic nerve pain and type 1 diabetes.
Price history
The interactive chart needs JavaScript.
VRTX +30.0% over the year to Nov 2, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO | $10.31B | 85.9% |
| ALYFTREK | $837.8M | 7% |
| Other product revenues | $820.1M | 6.8% |
| JOURNAVX | $59.6M | 0.5% |
| Other revenues | $30.7M | 0.3% |
By geography
| United States | $7.55B | 62.9% |
| Europe | $3.46B | 28.8% |
| Other | $992.4M | 8.3% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $3.33B, up 12.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $1.10B (+6.5%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $12.00B (+8.9% year over year; +14.1% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 32.9% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +14.1% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 34.8% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 26.6% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 21.2% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 15.4% good |
| Cash and investments | $13.64B (no borrowings found in the filings) good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $6.21B | $2.71B | $2.99B |
| FY2021 | $7.57B | $2.34B | $2.41B |
| FY2022 | $8.93B | $3.32B | $3.93B |
| FY2023 | $9.87B | $3.62B | $3.34B |
| FY2024 | $11.02B | $-535.6M | $-790.3M |
| FY2025 | $12.00B | $3.95B | $3.19B |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $140.20B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 36.1 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Vertex Pharmaceuticals’s market value went from $18.27B at the end of 2016 to $140.20B on Nov 2, 2026, about 7.7 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 22%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2026 | $140.20B | +21.9% |
| 2025 | $115.03B | +10.9% |
| 2024 | $103.71B | -1.1% |
| 2023 | $104.85B | +41.4% |
| 2022 | $74.13B | +32.8% |
| 2021 | $55.83B | -9.2% |
| 2020 | $61.46B | +9.2% |
| 2019 | $56.30B | +33.0% |
| 2018 | $42.35B | +11.7% |
| 2017 | $37.90B | +107.4% |
| 2016 | $18.27B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VRTX price data to Nov 2, 2026 | +22.0% | +30.0% | +13.7% | +25.0% | +21.6% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +22.0% |
| 2025 | +12.6% |
| 2024 | -1.0% |
| 2023 | +40.9% |
| 2022 | +31.5% |
| 2021 | -7.1% |
| 2020 | +7.9% |
| 2019 | +32.1% |
| 2018 | +10.6% |
| 2017 | +103.4% |
| 2016 | -41.5% |
| 2015 | +5.9% |
| 2014 | +59.9% |
| 2013 | +77.3% |
| 2012 | +26.2% |
| 2011 | -5.2% |
| 2010 | -18.3% |
| 2009 | +41.0% |
| 2008 | +30.8% |
| 2007 | -37.9% |
| 2006 | +35.2% |
| 2005 | +161.8% |
| 2004 | +2.1% |
| 2003 | -34.7% |
| 2002 | -35.5% |
| 2001 | -65.6% |
| 2000 | +308.6% |
| 1999 | +17.6% |
| 1998 | -9.8% |
| 1997 | -18.0% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 24.3% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 59.9%, back to its old high 16.8 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 18.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 19.4%, back to its old high 0.7 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Gained 30.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 19.2%, back to its old high 1.4 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-11-03 to 2026-11-03 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 12 sales ($10.4M), 12 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 12, 2026 | Carmen Bozic EVP and CMO | sell (plan) | $3.1M |
| Jun 15, 2026 | Carmen Bozic EVP and CMO | sell (plan) | $1.8M |
| May 29, 2026 | Carmen Bozic EVP and CMO | sell (plan) | $888K |
| Jul 2, 2026 | Duncan McKechnie EVP, Chief Commercial Officer | sell (plan) | $800K |
| Jul 2, 2026 | Ourania Tatsis EVP, Chief Reg. & Quality Off. | sell (plan) | $787K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| Capital World Investors | 10.1% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Capital Research Global Investors | 8.3% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 7.49% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| FMR LLC | 3.6% | Dec 31, 2024 |
ETFs with the most weight in VRTX
| BBH VanEck Biotech ETF | 12.53% |
| MNTL Tema Neuroscience and Mental Health ETF | 12.24% |
| IBBQ Invesco Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF | 9.69% |
| IBB iShares Biotechnology ETF | 9.44% |
| LSGR Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF | 5.36% |
| HELX Franklin Genomic Advancements ETF | 5.2% |
| FBT First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund | 4.52% |
| BRIF FIS Bright Portfolios Focused Equity ETF | 4.26% |
What could go wrong
- Heavy reliance on cystic fibrosis drugs. Substantially all of Vertex's product revenue comes from CF medicines. TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO alone was 85.9% of fiscal 2025 revenue. A new rival, safety problem or supply disruption in CF could hit results hard.
- CASGEVY is complex and costly to deliver. Each patient's cells are collected and edited off-site, and patients undergo a harsh step that clears their bone marrow. Its manufacturing cost as a share of revenue is far higher than for CF medicines.
- Pain drug JOURNAVX may fall short. Part of Vertex's market value rests on JOURNAVX and its pain pipeline. The drug faces cheaper alternatives in a crowded market, and trials in diabetic nerve pain may not succeed.
- Pipeline setbacks and trial delays. Vertex had five pivotal (late-stage) programs in kidney disease, nerve pain and type 1 diabetes. Trials can fail or stall. Vertex postponed finishing dosing in its zimislecel diabetes trial pending a manufacturing analysis.
- Drug pricing and reimbursement pressure. Revenue depends on governments and insurers paying for Vertex's medicines. U.S. and foreign governments have shown growing interest in price controls and reimbursement limits, which could reduce what Vertex collects.
- Competition and patent protection. Rival companies could launch new CF, pain or blood-disorder treatments. If Vertex cannot obtain, maintain and enforce its patents, or infringes others' patents, its products and profits could suffer.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; Investor presentation or announcement; Other company announcement
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
Vertex pays no dividend and paid none from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025, so it provides no regular income. An investor who wants cash from the shares has to reduce the position. The company returns cash through buybacks, which means it repurchases its own shares. It spent about $5.05 billion on buybacks over those five years, including $2.02 billion in fiscal 2025. Even so, the share count fell only 0.3% between October 29, 2021 and July 31, 2026. Vertex held $13.6 billion in cash and investments as of June 30, 2026.
The stock's record in downturns is mixed. In the 2008 financial crisis it fell 59.9% from its October 2007 peak and took about 17 months to recover. In the 2020 COVID crash it dropped 19.4% and recovered within a month. During the 2022 bear market it gained 30.4% while the broad market fell, despite a 19.2% dip along the way. A single stock carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
Does Vertex Pharmaceuticals pay a dividend?
No. Vertex paid no dividends from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025. Instead, it returns cash through buybacks and repurchased about $5.05 billion of its own shares over those five years. Those purchases have barely reduced the share count, which fell only 0.3% between October 29, 2021 and July 31, 2026. For an income investor, that means returns depend entirely on the share price.
How does Vertex Pharmaceuticals make money?
Vertex makes money from prescription medicines, mostly for cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited disease that damages the lungs. Of its $12.0 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue, the CF combination TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO supplied 85.9% and the newer CF drug ALYFTREK 7%. It ships medicines mainly to specialty pharmacies, specialty distributors and major U.S. wholesalers, while governments and insurers pay much of the cost. The U.S. provided 62.9% of revenue and Europe 28.8%. Newer products include CASGEVY for blood disorders and JOURNAVX for acute pain.
How much of Vertex's revenue comes from cystic fibrosis drugs?
Almost all of it. Vertex's fiscal 2025 annual report says substantially all of its net product revenue comes from CF medicines. TRIKAFTA/KAFTRIO alone made up 85.9% of fiscal 2025 revenue, and ALYFTREK added another 7%. Vertex expects most people with CF to switch to ALYFTREK, a once-daily medicine, over time. Because so much comes from one disease, competition, safety problems, supply disruptions or price cuts in CF could weigh heavily on results.
What is Vertex's non-opioid painkiller JOURNAVX?
JOURNAVX (suzetrigine) is a non-opioid pill for moderate-to-severe acute pain in adults. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it in January 2025. It works by blocking NaV1.8, a sodium channel involved in pain signals. Vertex says it has shown no evidence of the addictive potential of opioids. More than 550,000 prescriptions were filled from its March 2025 launch through the end of 2025. It brought in $59.6 million, or 0.5% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Vertex is also testing it for diabetic nerve pain.
How has Vertex stock performed over the long run?
Very well over the past decade, with sharp swings along the way. As of October 28, 2026, the share price had risen 25.4% over one year. It averaged gains of 23.8% a year over five years and 21.2% a year over ten years, a total rise of 583% over the decade. Because Vertex pays no dividend, these are price gains only. The shares fell 59.9% during the 2008 financial crisis and once lost 91.8% from a peak over 30 years of trading history. Past returns do not guarantee future results.