BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) saw a significant decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,290,000 shares, a decrease of 10.7% from the November 30th total of 19,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,990,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.7 days.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BCRX. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C grew its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 62.9% in the 2nd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 8,135,804 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $50,279,000 after purchasing an additional 3,140,804 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,837,985 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $36,776,000 after buying an additional 127,708 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 16.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,338,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,369,000 after acquiring an additional 481,359 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 13.6% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,181,012 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $16,576,000 after acquiring an additional 261,500 shares during the period. Finally, Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lifted its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 2,163,743 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $16,444,000 after acquiring an additional 84,102 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BCRX shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $10.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays lifted their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.60.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ BCRX traded down $0.01 on Tuesday, reaching $7.52. The company had a trading volume of 1,458,914 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,813,017. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $4.03 and a 52 week high of $8.88. The stock has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.33 and a beta of 1.79. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $7.64 and its 200-day moving average is $7.49.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $117.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.19) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema.