Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Aug 7, 2026
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc / Ma (VRTX)
A forensic read on Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc / Ma built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
17.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
28.3
P / E (ttm)
21.2%
ROE
$132.6B
Market cap
8.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc / Ma earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 17.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
320d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 232 to 320 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +40% vs +8% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
0.95×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was 0.95× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+13.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.7% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +40% against +8% in cost of sales and receivables up +28% against revenue +9%. This is the third straight fiscal year of building accruals — a multi-year streak is a materially stronger tell than a single year's move. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
-0.1%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed -0% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($2.0B) are about offsetting stock comp ($686M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$12.00B
Revenue Growth YoY+8.9%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+10.3%
Net Margin32.9%
Free Cash Flow$3.19B
Return on Equity21.2%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc / Ma's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?