DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Stock analysts at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) in a research report issued on Friday. The brokerage set a “sell” rating on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock.

Separately, HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a research report on Thursday, March 27th.

DURECT Trading Down 2.0 %

DRRX stock opened at $0.78 on Friday. DURECT has a 1 year low of $0.70 and a 1 year high of $1.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $0.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $0.98. The stock has a market cap of $24.30 million, a PE ratio of -1.28 and a beta of 0.91.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $2.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.91 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 198.58% and a negative return on equity of 300.62%. On average, analysts forecast that DURECT will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DURECT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of DURECT by 266.0% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 28,486 shares in the last quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. raised its holdings in DURECT by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $961,000 after buying an additional 138,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in DURECT by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 319,905 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 14,658 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.03% of the company’s stock.

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.