DURECT’s (DRRX) Neutral Rating Reiterated at HC Wainwright

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

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

DURECT Stock Up 2.3 %

DRRX stock opened at $1.31 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1.44 and a 200 day moving average of $1.30. DURECT has a 52 week low of $0.47 and a 52 week 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.49 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 187.80% and a negative return on equity of 261.43%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.46) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that DURECT will post -0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Richmond Brothers Inc. increased its stake in DURECT by 39.5% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of DURECT during the 2nd quarter worth $113,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 41.3% in the 2nd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 21,550 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 6,300 shares during the last quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 21,425 shares during the period. Finally, Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of DURECT by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the period. 28.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.