Wedbush Has Lowered Expectations for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) Stock Price

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) had its target price decreased by equities researchers at Wedbush from $22.00 to $21.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Wedbush’s target price points to a potential upside of 143.62% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on BCRX. Evercore initiated coverage on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.70.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 3.1%

Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $8.62 on Thursday. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $6.00 and a fifty-two week high of $11.31. The business’s fifty day moving average is $9.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.83. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a PE ratio of -4.84 and a beta of 0.57.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($3.04). BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.The business had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $151.12 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post 0.26 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

In other news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.15, for a total transaction of $1,372,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 400,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,666,432.45. This represents a 27.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 119.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,690,651 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,615,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,799 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 408,668 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,891,000 after purchasing an additional 14,300 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 637,658 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,071,000 after purchasing an additional 29,666 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth about $6,010,000. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 639,100 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,084,000 after purchasing an additional 80,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical?stage biotechnology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that focuses on the discovery and development of novel, oral small?molecule medicines for rare and serious diseases. Since its founding in 1986, the company has leveraged structure?based drug design to advance a pipeline of targeted therapeutics designed to address underlying disease mechanisms rather than just treat symptoms.

The company’s first commercial product, Orladeyo (berotralstat), is an oral kallikrein inhibitor approved for the prophylactic treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in both the United States and Europe.