DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Upgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Wednesday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. HC Wainwright restated a neutral rating on shares of DURECT in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Oppenheimer restated an outperform rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of DURECT in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $27.50.

DURECT Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ DRRX opened at $1.23 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $1.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $0.87. The company has a market cap of $38.18 million, a P/E ratio of -1.29 and a beta of 0.94. DURECT has a 12 month low of $0.47 and a 12 month high of $6.74.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.27) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.36) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 328.25% and a negative net margin of 279.77%. Sell-side analysts expect that DURECT will post -0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gagnon Securities LLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 6.0% in the first quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 380,131 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 21,425 shares in the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in DURECT by 10.8% in the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in DURECT in the third quarter worth $64,000. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 3,366.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,600 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 40,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in DURECT in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

DURECT Company Profile

DURECT Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines based on its epigenetic regulator program. The company's lead product larsucosterol (DUR-928), an endogenous, orally bioavailable small molecule that is in Phase IIb clinical trial to play a regulatory role in lipid metabolism, stress and inflammatory responses, and cell death and survival to treat alcohol-associated hepatitis, as well as completed Phase Ib clinical trial to treat patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.