BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) Short Interest Down 35.9% in July

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totaling 31,208,457 shares, a drop of 35.9% from the June 30th total of 48,685,241 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,245,936 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.9 days. Currently, 12.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on BCRX shares. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Citizens Jmp lifted their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BCRX. RA Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth $123,452,000. Deerfield Management Company L.P. raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 159.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. now owns 12,169,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $92,363,000 after buying an additional 7,477,000 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 7,807.2% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 7,404,386 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $57,791,000 after acquiring an additional 7,310,745 shares in the last quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 135.1% during the 1st quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 7,434,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $70,772,000 after acquiring an additional 4,271,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 231.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,091,765 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,474,000 after acquiring an additional 3,556,208 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ BCRX opened at $8.98 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $9.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.63. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $6.00 and a 12 month high of $11.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.04 and a beta of 0.55.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($3.04). BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.The company had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.12 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -2.58 EPS for the current year.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that focuses on the discovery and development of novel, oral small‐molecule medicines for rare and serious diseases. Since its founding in 1986, the company has leveraged structure‐based drug design to advance a pipeline of targeted therapeutics designed to address underlying disease mechanisms rather than just treat symptoms.

The company’s first commercial product, Orladeyo (berotralstat), is an oral kallikrein inhibitor approved for the prophylactic treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in both the United States and Europe.