BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:BCRX)

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 2,478 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 59% compared to the average daily volume of 1,554 call options.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 767,571 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,434,000 after purchasing an additional 8,087 shares during the last quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 64.7% during the third quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,300 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $165,000 after acquiring an additional 9,150 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 96.4% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 2,388 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 17,500.0% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,520 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% in the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 727,480 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,151,000 after acquiring an additional 41,971 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of BCRX stock opened at $5.26 on Wednesday. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $4.03 and a fifty-two week high of $8.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $4.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.45. The company has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of -4.46 and a beta of 1.96.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.17) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $92.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.62 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 34.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.28) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on BCRX. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.00.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.