5 Stocks Pushing The Health Care Sector Lower

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model

All three major indices are trading up today with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) trading up 22 points (0.2%) at 12,810 as of Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, 11:49 AM ET. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,635 issues advancing vs. 1,204 declining with 167 unchanged.

The Health Care sector currently sits up 0.2% versus the S&P 500, which is up 0.0%. On the negative front, top decliners within the sector include DaVita HealthCare Partners (DVA), down 1.8%, Edwards Life (EW), down 1.3%, Humana (HUM), down 1.0%, Sanofi (SNY), down 0.6% and Express Scripts (ESRX), down 0.7%. Top gainers within the sector include Thoratec Corporation (THOR), up 4.9%, Boston Scientific (BSX), up 3.2%, Shire (SHPG), up 1.5% and Becton Dickinson (BDX), up 0.8%.

TheStreet Ratings group would like to highlight 5 stocks pushing the sector lower today:

5. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) is one of the companies pushing the Health Care sector lower today. As of noon trading, Vertex Pharmaceuticals is down $1.10 (-2.6%) to $41.06 on light volume Thus far, 615,588 shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2.3 million shares. The stock has ranged in price between $40.69-$42.15 after having opened the day at $42.11 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $42.16.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated engages in discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing small molecule drugs for the treatment of serious diseases worldwide. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a market cap of $9.0 billion and is part of the drugs industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 66.8, above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 24.8% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday. Currently there are 15 analysts that rate Vertex Pharmaceuticals a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 3 rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates Vertex Pharmaceuticals as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income and feeble growth in the company's earnings per share. Get the full Vertex Pharmaceuticals Ratings Report now.

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