DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) Research Coverage Started at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen started coverage on shares of DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) in a research report report published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock.

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

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:DRRX opened at $0.54 on Thursday. DURECT has a 1-year low of $0.52 and a 1-year high of $1.88. The stock has a market cap of $16.89 million, a PE ratio of -0.89 and a beta of 0.66. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $0.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $0.81.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX) last announced 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). DURECT had a negative return on equity of 300.62% and a negative net margin of 198.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.91 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that DURECT will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Richmond Brothers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of DURECT by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $961,000 after acquiring an additional 138,920 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in DURECT by 266.0% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 28,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dalton Investments Inc. lifted its position in DURECT by 109.1% during the first quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. now owns 512,312 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 267,312 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.