Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C Increases Position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)

Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C increased its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,144,442 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,638 shares during the quarter. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals makes up about 1.2% of Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C’s holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals were worth $61,246,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BCRX. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth $46,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 80.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,198 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $80,000. Finally, Syon Capital LLC purchased a new position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $99,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $8.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $16.56.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ BCRX opened at $10.08 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $7.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.86. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12 month low of $5.04 and a 12 month high of $11.11. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.52 and a beta of 1.08.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $131.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $126.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -0.36 earnings per share for the current year.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema.