BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.70.

Several research firms have commented on BCRX. Citizens Jmp upped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 1st. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BioCryst Pharmaceuticals news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.15, for a total transaction of $1,372,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 400,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,666,432.45. This represents a 27.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.4% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 63,463 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $476,000 after buying an additional 1,458 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 135,314 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,019,000 after buying an additional 8,517 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 49.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,931,934 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $14,490,000 after buying an additional 640,704 shares during the period. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at about $314,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 11.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 448,466 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,363,000 after buying an additional 47,355 shares during the period. 85.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

BCRX opened at $8.70 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.89 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $8.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.11. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $6.00 and a 1 year high of $10.47.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by ($3.04). The company had revenue of $156.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.12 million. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.BioCryst Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -2.66 EPS for the current year.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.