StockNews.com Begins Coverage on DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX)

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) in a research report released on Sunday. The firm issued a sell rating on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock.

Separately, HC Wainwright restated a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a research note on Thursday, September 26th.

DURECT Price Performance

Shares of DRRX opened at $1.35 on Friday. DURECT has a 1 year low of $0.47 and a 1 year high of $2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $41.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.21 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50-day moving average of $1.39 and a 200-day moving average of $1.35.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 261.43% and a negative net margin of 187.80%. The business had revenue of $2.17 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.49 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.46) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that DURECT will post -0.78 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Richmond Brothers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of DURECT by 39.5% in the second quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,072,014 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,383,000 after acquiring an additional 303,670 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of DURECT by 41.3% in the second quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 21,550 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,300 shares during the period. Accredited Investors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of DURECT in the second quarter worth $113,000. Gagnon Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 21,425 shares during the period. Finally, Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in DURECT by 10.8% during the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.