A struggling economy and a bear market haven't been able to stop Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX). Over the past year, the company's shares are up by 17%. And Wall Street continues to be enamored with the drugmaker, which has a consensus buy rating, according to Yahoo! Finance. But Vertex looks expensive when going by traditional valuation metrics.

A price-to-sales (P/S) ratio between 1 and 2 is usually considered in the "reasonably valued" range. Vertex's forward multiple comes in at more than four times the upper bounds of this range. Also, the company's forward price-to earnings (P/E) multiple is higher than that of the biotech industry, which is currently about 15. Should investors stay away from the stock?

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Source Fool.com