DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.50.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of DURECT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of DURECT in a report on Monday, April 1st.

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of DRRX opened at $0.96 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $1.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.79 million, a PE ratio of -0.79 and a beta of 0.85. DURECT has a 1 year low of $0.47 and a 1 year high of $7.46.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.36) by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 323.16% and a negative return on equity of 316.78%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that DURECT will post -1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of DURECT during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Black Diamond Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of DURECT during the third quarter worth approximately $52,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of DURECT during the third quarter worth approximately $64,000. Barclays PLC grew its position 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 worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 40,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Accredited Investors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of DURECT during the third quarter worth approximately $141,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.