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

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

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

DURECT Trading Down 1.6%

DURECT stock opened at $0.65 on Wednesday. DURECT has a twelve month low of $0.52 and a twelve month high of $1.88. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $0.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.12 million, a P/E ratio of -1.06 and a beta of 0.66.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $2.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.91 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 300.62% and a negative net margin of 198.58%. Sell-side analysts predict that DURECT will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DURECT

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Richmond Brothers Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 138,920 shares during the last quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of DURECT by 109.1% during the first quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. now owns 512,312 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $411,000 after purchasing an additional 267,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of DURECT by 266.0% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 28,486 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

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.