Viracta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRX) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Viracta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRX) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,690,000 shares, an increase of 144.5% from the October 15th total of 1,100,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,390,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 9.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viracta Therapeutics

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Viracta Therapeutics stock. Stonepine Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viracta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRX) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $116,000. Stonepine Capital Management LLC owned 1.27% of Viracta Therapeutics as of its most recent SEC filing. 31.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Viracta Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VIRX traded down $0.00 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $0.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,114,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 492,165. Viracta Therapeutics has a one year low of $0.13 and a one year high of $1.31. The business’s 50-day moving average is $0.22 and its 200-day moving average is $0.44. The company has a market cap of $6.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.14 and a beta of 0.72.

Viracta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VIRX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.35) by $0.10. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Viracta Therapeutics will post -0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VIRX shares. Leerink Partners lowered Viracta Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $5.00 to $3.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Viracta Therapeutics from $4.00 to $2.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday.

About Viracta Therapeutics

Viracta Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage precision oncology company, focuses on the treatment and prevention of virus-associated cancers that impact patients worldwide. Its lead product candidate is Nana-val, an all-oral combination therapy of its proprietary investigational drug, nanatinostat, and the antiviral agent valganciclovir.