GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #200. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) through six filing lenses, as of the latest filings. Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
The Hype
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) is on TipRanks' "Trending With Analysts" list, where the post says analyst Naz Rahman upgraded the stock to Buy with a $575 target, citing blockbuster potential from its kidney drug candidate povetacicept: interim Phase 3 data in IgA nephropathy showed sharp reductions in proteinuria and disease-related biomarkers, with a rolling biologics application to finish by the end of March and approval aimed for as soon as late 2026. The same post says povetacicept, together with Journavx and Casgevy, could generate more than 30% of Vertex's revenue by 2030 and diversify the company beyond cystic fibrosis. Those are the post's claims, cited as the attention story — not figures this article verifies. No other news event is cited for VRTX: the attention claim rests on that listing plus the measured price tape.
The price tape behind the attention is a rise. VRTX closed 2025 at $453.36, stood at $446.54 by March 31, 2026, then rose 11.2% in Q2 to $496.73 by June 30, stood at $522.81 by September 30, and closed the price file on October 2 at $504.73 — 1.6% above its June 30 close and 11.3% above its 2025 year-end close. The daily refresh (cross-source) puts the October 23 close at $523.93 — 3.8% above the October 2 close and 15.6% above the 2025 year-end close. While the price rose in Q2, what did the tracked holders, the broad market, insiders, members of Congress, and the passive register actually do?
The Tape
| Lens | As of | What the filings show | Direction vs prior period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 4 of 147 tracked managers hold; 587,502 shares ($291.83M reported). Edgewood is 90.4%. All 4 cut. | Verified continuing cohort shares −53.9%; no new holders, no exits; register = cohort, residual 0 |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 1,748 filers hold 239,716,267 shares ($117.60B reported). | Shares +15.41%; filers +85; reported value +28.31% |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | 0 buys, 3 sells in 90 days ($2.00M sold); 0 buys in the year; 4 buys ever, all filed Aug 7, 2025. | No buys in 90 days or in the year; the year's sell total is $158.38M |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | 0 buys, 1 sell in the combined file; 1 House member named, no Senate row. | Sells only; no buys in either chamber |
| 13D/G | May 14, 2026 | 8 filings, all Schedule 13G forms; Capital World Investors max 11.2%. | Entirely passive; no activist-form filing |
| Short interest | Sep 15, 2026 | 4,716,867 shares short, 1.86% of shares outstanding; 5.03 days to cover. | 18.0% below the March 2025 peak; +1.23% from prior settlement; −4.5% vs June; +16.4% year over year |
Chart: VRTX through six filing lenses — who is actually there?
Superinvestors. The tracked register for VRTX is tiny, concentrated, and unanimous in one direction. Four of 147 tracked managers hold 587,502 common shares — $291,829,832 reported — and the largest holder is 90.4% of it. Edgewood Management holds 531,003 shares at 2.72% of its portfolio, DECREASED −41.3% against a verified Q1 pair of 905,129 shares. Tweedy Browne holds 40,121 shares at 1.51% of its portfolio, DECREASED −0.7% against a verified Q1 pair of 40,387 shares. Torray Funds holds 15,215 shares at 1.02% of its portfolio, DECREASED −1.1% against a verified Q1 pair of 15,386 shares. Harding Loevner holds 1,163 shares at 0.01% of its portfolio, DECREASED −99.6% against a verified Q1 pair of 313,546 shares. All four continuing labels recompute exactly, under both pairing methods.
The verified continuing cohort fell by more than half: the 4 holders held 1,274,448 shares in Q1, so the cohort shrank 686,946 shares, or 53.9%, in Q2. Unlike most tapes, there is no hidden story underneath that number — the Q2 register is exactly the cohort, and the Q1 register is exactly the cohort's Q1 pairs. No tracked holder exited, no new holder joined in June, and both registers reconcile with a residual of 0. The cohort is 0.25% of the full market's reported VRTX shares and 0.23% of shares outstanding — a small footprint that halved while the price rose 11.2%.
Two precision points matter. First, Harding Loevner's 99.6% cut is not an exit: it still holds 1,163 shares in Q2, so the article does not call it one. Its Q1 position was 24.6% of the Q1 register; its Q2 position is 0.2% of the Q2 register. Second, one September early filer sits outside the June cohort and must not be blended into it: Montrusco Bolton Investments reports 149,888 VRTX shares at September 30, 2026 ($78,362,945, 1.36% weight, labelled NEW). That September stake equals 25.5% of the June cohort's size, but it is a different quarter-end, so it is a scale comparison only — not part of the June cohort's 587,502 shares.
All institutions. The broad market moved the other way from the tracked cohort, on a much larger scale. Filers rose by 85 to 1,748, of which 1,741 are long, while reported shares rose 15.41% (+31,999,325 shares to 239,716,267). Reported value rose 28.31% to $117.60 billion — value up faster than shares, because the June 30 close ($496.73) sits above the March 31 close ($446.54). Underneath, 1,417 filers entered and 1,332 exited, net +85. Excluding the tracked cohort, other institutions hold 239,128,765 shares — so the broad market's Q2 share growth dwarfs the tracked register's fall, and the two moved in opposite directions.
Insiders. This lens holds no buying at all in the recent windows — and the buying that exists is old and narrow. In the 90 days to October 2, 2026, insiders bought nothing and sold $2,003,507.88 worth of stock: 10 filings, 0 buys, 3 sells, 3,869 shares, all officer sells — Liu Joy (EVP and Chief Legal Officer), 828 shares at $502.71 on July 6; Tatsis Ourania (EVP, Chief Regulatory & Quality Officer), 1,500 shares at $524.99 on July 7; and McKechnie Duncan (EVP, Chief Commercial Officer), 1,541 shares at $519.00 on July 7. Dates here are filing dates. In the year to October 2, 2026: 110 filings, 0 buys, 94 sells, 343,058 shares sold for $158,378,024.22, by 13 sellers, 92 of the sells by officers. Across the whole corpus, the same picture extends: 198 filings, 4 buys against 118 sells, 15,000 shares bought for $5,844,183.38 against 382,921 shares sold for $177,628,163.61, by 2 buyers and 14 sellers. The scan for issuer CIK 875320 (198 files, all VRTX, January 17, 2025 to September 10, 2026) matches the aggregate exactly. One qualification matters: the site insider aggregate has no VRTX row, so the 90-day window is verified by the agg-vs-scan match alone, not by a site row. The article therefore never says insiders "never bought": zero buys in the 90 days, zero buys in the year — but exactly 4 buys ever, all filed August 7, 2025, outside the year window: Sachs Bruce I (non-officer), 5,000 shares for $1,948,415.68; and Kewalramani Reshma (CEO & President), 10,000 shares for $3,895,767.70. Implied prices sit inside the price-file range in every window.
Congress. This lens holds a single sell, plus a reporting quirk that has to be stated plainly. The combined file records 0 buys and 1 sell: the House row records 1 sell and there is no Senate row for VRTX at all, with the combined file's member-count field reading 0. The House member file names the seller and reconciles exactly: Taylor, David J. (R), 1 sell, last transaction August 26, 2026, in the $1,001–$15,000 band. The member file covers House disclosures for 2026 (transactions dated on or after April 1, 2026). The agg files' member-count field reads 0 despite the member file naming 1 House seller. Congress findings are member-disclosure aggregates, not Form 4 insider transactions, and are never added to insider totals.
13D/G. The control register is entirely passive. It holds 8 filings: 0 Schedule 13D forms, 2 Schedule 13G forms, and 6 Schedule 13G/A amendments, from 6 distinct reporter names. The largest reported percentage is 11.2% for Capital World Investors (28,739,975 shares, event December 31, 2024, filed February 13, 2025). The latest date, May 14, 2026, carries two filings: Capital World Investors at 10.1% (25,695,015 shares, event March 31, 2026) and Capital Research Global Investors at 8.3% (21,139,169 shares, event March 31, 2026) — percentages as reported at different event dates, not recomputed. Vanguard Capital Management reported 7.49% (19,036,076 shares, event March 31, 2026, filed April 30, 2026). The Vanguard Group's March 2026 filing reports 0.0 shares at 0.0% (event March 13, 2026, filed March 27, 2026) — a below-threshold print, quoted as reported, not as a holding. The two Vanguard names are kept separate and not merged. The aggregate matches the parsed set exactly.
Short interest. The bear trade is well below its peak but rebuilding. FINRA short interest stood at 4,716,867 shares at September 15, 2026, with 5.03 days to cover and 1.86% of the 253,460,924 shares outstanding (a point-in-time count as of July 31, 2026). That latest settlement is 18.0% below the series peak of 5,753,349 (March 14, 2025), 1.23% above the prior settlement (4,659,749 at August 31), 4.5% below June 30 (4,938,472), and 16.4% above the year-ago figure (4,053,668 at September 15, 2025). The last six settlements read: 4,938,472 (June 30), 4,986,691 (July 15), 3,942,936 (July 31), 4,146,973 (August 14), 4,659,749 (August 31), 4,716,867 (September 15) — a July dip, then a rebuild through August into September. The series low is 2,501,946 (December 30, 2022). No step needs a mechanical flag: the largest step is 1.321× and the smallest is 0.609×, with no stock-split flag rows.
Chart: VRTX short interest — 137 FINRA settlements, January 2021 to September 2026.
Fundamentals context. Shares outstanding are 253,460,924 (July 31, 2026); FY2025 revenue $12,001,300,000, net income $3,953,200,000, assets $25,643,000,000.
The Gap
The attention and the filing tape pull in different directions here, and the tracked cohort and the broad market pull against each other too. A trending listing with a Buy upgrade and a $575 target puts VRTX in front of readers while the Q2 price rose 11.2% — yet every tracked holder cut in that quarter and the verified cohort halved, 53.9%. The broad market, meanwhile, added 15.41% in shares and 85 filers in the same quarter. So the gap is not between the price and the tape as a whole: the broad tape and the price agree, and the tracked corner disagrees with both. Insiders add a quieter disagreement — no buys in 90 days, no buys in the year, only four buys ever, all from August 2025 — while Congress sold only, the control register holds no activist-form filing, and short interest sits below its peak but above its year-ago level. The market added through the rise; the tracked holders did not.
What Would Change the Picture
Nothing above is a recommendation. It is a record. What would change it:
- 1. Q3 13F season (filings due by November 16, 2026). Watch whether Edgewood holds or trims its 531,003 shares, whether Harding Loevner exits its remaining 1,163 shares entirely, whether Montrusco Bolton's September position of 149,888 shares persists or grows, and whether any new tracked holder appears.
- 2. A first insider buy after October 2, 2026 would end a year window with zero buys — the last buys in the corpus are from August 7, 2025.
- 3. A first congressional buy would change a lens that currently holds sells only, with a single named House seller.
- 4. A new Schedule 13D filing, a new passive reporter above 11.2%, or Capital World Investors moving above or below its 10.1% March 2026 print would change a control register that currently holds no activist-form filing.
- 5. Short-interest direction. A fall back toward the July 31 level of 3,942,936 — or a rise through the March 2025 peak of 5,753,349 — would each tell a different story about a bear position that dipped, then rebuilt.
As-of & Limits
| Lens | As of | Limit or note |
|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, the quarter-end. Funds have up to 45 days after quarter-end to file, so this is the most recent complete picture — and it is always a lagging one. Common stock only (CUSIP 92532F100); no option rows, no second class in the tracked file. All continuing labels recompute exactly under both pairing methods. Both registers reconcile exactly with residual 0; no exits, no new June holders. Harding Loevner's 99.6% cut is not an exit (1,163 shares remain). Montrusco Bolton's September 30, 2026 filing (149,888 shares, NEW) is a different quarter-end and is not blended into the June cohort. |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | Reported value includes option rows by definition; implied price ($490.56) is not a price check. Value rose faster than shares because the June close sits above the March close. |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | Zero buys in the 90 days to October 2, 2026 and zero buys in the year; exactly 4 buys totalling 15,000 shares in the whole corpus, all filed August 7, 2025 (Sachs Bruce I, 5,000 shares; Kewalramani Reshma, CEO & President, 10,000 shares). The scan (198 files, issuer CIK 875320, January 17, 2025 to September 10, 2026) matches the aggregate exactly. The site insider aggregate has no VRTX row, so no site-match claim is made. |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | Sells only: 0 buys, 1 sell in the combined file (House 1, no Senate row). House seller named: Taylor, David J. (R), 1 sell, last transaction August 26, 2026, $1,001–$15,000 band. The agg files' member-count field reads 0 despite the member file naming 1 House seller. Congress findings are member-disclosure aggregates, not Form 4 insider transactions, and are never added to insider totals. |
| 13D/G | May 14, 2026 | Entirely passive register: 0 SC 13D forms, 2 SC 13G, 6 SC 13G/A. Filing percentages are as reported in each filing; denominators differ by filing date and are not recomputed. The two Vanguard reporter names are kept separate. The Vanguard Group's 0.0-share March 2026 print is quoted as reported. Reporter-row sums across dates are not economic totals. |
| Short interest | Sep 15, 2026 | Shares-outstanding count is a point-in-time count as of July 31, 2026. No stock-split flag rows; the largest step (1.321×) needs no mechanical flag. |
| Prices | Oct 23, 2026 (fresh close) | Price file ends Oct 2, 2026; the Oct 23 close ($523.93) and moves derived from it are cross-source (chart_stats) and labelled as such. The price file's splits field is empty and its rows show no break. The chart_stats 52-week-high field ($560.25) is a different window from the price file's 252-day high ($557.96) and is quoted as its own field. |
| Fundamentals | FY2025 | Recorded market capitalisation uses the record's own price_close ($502.31 as of Oct 6, 2026), not the Oct 23 close, and is quoted only as the record's figure. Shares outstanding are a point-in-time count as of July 31, 2026. |
| Hype source | Oct 26, 2026 (TipRanks trending list) | Listing only (TipRanks "Trending With Analysts" post: TTD, OCGN, STZ, VRTX, LCID; VRTX upgrade and $575 target are the post's claims, cited with a link); no other news event is cited for VRTX in this article. Price moves are measured from the price file and chart_stats. |
Methodology & disclaimer: 13F holdings are long common shares unless stated; reported values include option rows for the all-institutions lens by definition. Short interest is FINRA twice-monthly settlements. Trading costs and taxes are not reflected in any figure. Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
This article describes filings and market data for education. It is not investment advice. Data: SEC EDGAR 13F (as of June 30, 2026, filed within 45 days), Form 4 corpus checked through October 2, 2026 (198 parsed files for issuer CIK 875320), House/Senate disclosures through October 3, 2026, SC 13D/G parsed register through May 14, 2026, FINRA short interest at September 15, 2026 settlement. 13F covers long positions of $100M+ managers only and is always a lagging picture. Trading costs and taxes are not reflected.
Related research: Five of 147: Slate Path Is 65.5% of the Tracked CSX Stake — and Viking's 18,678,052 Shares Are Gone From the Q2 Register · Four of 147: Oakmark Is 84.4% of the Tracked Nasdaq Stake — and the Cohort Grew 9.2% While the Price Fell 7.2% · Track the tape on VRTX's stock page and the 13F filing season hub.
Revision history: v1.0 — October 26, 2026. Initial publication. Signals and lens aggregates: vrtx_lens_data.csv. Short-interest series: vrtx_short_interest_series.csv.