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

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

DURECT Stock Performance

DURECT stock opened at $0.80 on Thursday. DURECT has a fifty-two week low of $0.70 and a fifty-two week high of $1.88. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $0.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1.00. The stock has a market cap of $24.83 million, a PE ratio of -1.31 and a beta of 0.91.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $6.91 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 198.58% and a negative return on equity of 300.62%. As a group, analysts predict that DURECT will post -0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DURECT

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