DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Now Covered by StockNews.com

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

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a report on Thursday, March 27th.

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of DRRX stock opened at $0.78 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $0.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.30 million, a PE ratio of -1.28 and a beta of 0.88. DURECT has a fifty-two week low of $0.70 and a fifty-two week high of $1.88.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $2.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.91 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 198.58% and a negative return on equity of 300.62%. Sell-side analysts forecast that DURECT will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRRX. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of DURECT by 266.0% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 28,486 shares during the period. Richmond Brothers Inc. increased its stake in shares of DURECT by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $961,000 after purchasing an additional 138,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in DURECT by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 319,905 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 14,658 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

About DURECT

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.