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

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

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

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of DURECT stock opened at $1.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.38 and a beta of 1.14. DURECT has a 52-week low of $0.47 and a 52-week high of $3.14. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $1.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $1.30.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.17 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.49 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 261.43% and a negative net margin of 187.80%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.46) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that DURECT will post -0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DURECT

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRRX. Richmond Brothers Inc. raised its position in shares of DURECT by 39.5% during 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 during the period. Gagnon Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of DURECT by 6.0% in the first quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 380,131 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $460,000 after buying an additional 21,425 shares in the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in DURECT by 10.8% during the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 256,220 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 25,000 shares during the last quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. purchased a new stake in DURECT during the second quarter valued at $113,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in DURECT by 41.3% during the second quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 21,550 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

DURECT Company Profile

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.