BOSTON (AP) _ Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $667.4 million.

The Boston-based company said it had profit of $2.53 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $2.64 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.39 per share.

The drugmaker posted revenue of $1.54 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.49 billion.

Vertex shares have dropped 5.5% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 2.5%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $207.01, a rise of nearly 5% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on VRTX at https://www.zacks.com/ap/VRTX

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