HC Wainwright Reaffirms Neutral Rating for DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX)

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by investment analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on DURECT in a research note on Monday, November 11th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company.

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of DURECT stock opened at $1.01 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $1.37. The company has a market cap of $31.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.66 and a beta of 1.13. DURECT has a one year low of $0.48 and a one year high of $1.88.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.17) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.49 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 235.22% and a negative net margin of 198.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.46) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that DURECT will post -0.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in 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 valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,300 shares during the last quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of DURECT during the 2nd quarter valued at about $113,000. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of DURECT by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 25,000 shares during the period. Gagnon Securities LLC boosted its position 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 last quarter. Finally, Richmond Brothers Inc. boosted its position 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 last quarter. 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.