DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

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

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

DURECT Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ:DRRX opened at $0.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.70 million, a P/E ratio of -1.20 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $0.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $0.92. DURECT has a 12 month low of $0.70 and a 12 month high of $1.88.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On DURECT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Richmond Brothers Inc. boosted its stake in DURECT by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $961,000 after acquiring an additional 138,920 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 28,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $429,000 after purchasing an additional 14,658 shares in the last quarter. 28.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

DURECT Company Profile

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.