DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Earns Neutral Rating from HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) in a research note published on Thursday, Benzinga reports.

Separately, StockNews.com cut DURECT from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th.

DURECT Price Performance

Shares of DRRX opened at $1.31 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $1.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $1.30. DURECT has a 12-month low of $0.47 and a 12-month high of $3.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.66 million, a PE ratio of -1.38 and a beta of 1.14.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 13th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 261.43% and a negative net margin of 187.80%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.49 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.46) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that DURECT will post -0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On DURECT

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Richmond Brothers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of DURECT by 39.5% during the second quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,072,014 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 303,670 shares during the period. Accredited Investors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of DURECT during the second quarter valued at $113,000. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of DURECT by 10.8% during the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the period. Gagnon Securities LLC grew its holdings in DURECT by 6.0% during 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 period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in DURECT by 41.3% during the second quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 21,550 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,300 shares during the period. 28.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.