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

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) in a research report released on Wednesday morning. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock.

DURECT Stock Up 6.1 %

DRRX opened at $0.85 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $26.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.39 and a beta of 0.91. DURECT has a 52-week low of $0.70 and a 52-week high of $1.88. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $0.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1.03.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On DURECT

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DRRX. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of DURECT by 266.0% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 28,486 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of DURECT by 4.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 319,905 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $429,000 after buying an additional 14,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Richmond Brothers Inc. increased its position in DURECT by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $961,000 after purchasing an additional 138,920 shares during the last quarter. 28.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.