DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $27.50.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of DURECT in a report on Monday, April 1st. HC Wainwright restated a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded DURECT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DURECT

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRRX. Black Diamond Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of DURECT during the third quarter valued at $52,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of DURECT during the third quarter valued at $64,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of DURECT by 3,366.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,600 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 40,400 shares in the last quarter. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of DURECT during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, CM Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of DURECT by 11.7% during the third quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 525,000 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,307,000 after acquiring an additional 55,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

DURECT Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DRRX opened at $0.92 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $28.43 million, a PE ratio of -0.75 and a beta of 0.85. DURECT has a fifty-two week low of $0.47 and a fifty-two week high of $7.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.08.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.36) by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 316.78% and a negative net margin of 323.16%. Research analysts predict that DURECT will post -1.04 EPS for the current year.

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.