Here’s Why Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) is on Loomis Sayles Growth Fund’s Detractors List

Loomis Sayles, an investment management company, released its “Growth Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund returned 18.58% compared to 17.84% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index. The fund focused on a highly selective, long-term private equity approach to investing. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Loomis Sayles Growth Fund highlighted stocks such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX). Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) is a biotechnology company focusing on developing and commercializing therapies for treating cystic fibrosis (CF). The one-month return of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) was 3.98%, and its shares lost 16.21% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 02, 2025, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) stock closed at $401.00 per share, with a market capitalization of $102.813 billion.

Loomis Sayles Growth Fund stated the following regarding Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX), founded in 1989, is a global biopharmaceutical company with deep expertise in protein and genetic science and a focus on specialty markets. The company is the leader in creating therapies for patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF), with five currently approved CF treatments, and the company is building out its capabilities to address related diseases that lever its core expertise in biology and medicinal chemistry.

A fund holding since June 2021, Vertex reported quarterly results that were fundamentally solid but below consensus expectation for revenues and profitability. Sales were negatively impacted by counterfeiting in Russia that was estimated to lower sales by $100 million in the period, with a similar impact anticipated over the remainder of the year. The company also announced that it was pausing one of its trials aimed at the 10% of CF patients that do not produce the CFTR proteins targeted by Vertex’s current therapies, in order to assess its side-effect profile. Because it remains an active clinical trial the company did not provide further details so as to maintain trial integrity, and the company reported positive clinical progress across a number of other programs…” (Click here to read the full text)

Is Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) the Best Stock to Buy According to Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies?

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 53 hedge fund portfolios held Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) at the end of the second quarter, which was 60 in the previous quarter. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) delivered $2.96 billion in revenue in the second quarter, representing a 12% growth compared to Q2 2024. While we acknowledge the risk and potential Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX) and shared ClearBridge All Cap Growth Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.