BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $20.70.

BCRX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore initiated coverage on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Citizens Jmp raised their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th.

Insider Transactions at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

In other BioCryst Pharmaceuticals news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,666,432.45. This trade represents a 27.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,273,375 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $173,732,000 after buying an additional 482,494 shares during the period. RA Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $123,452,000. Deerfield Management Company L.P. lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 159.4% in the third quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. now owns 12,169,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $92,363,000 after buying an additional 7,477,000 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,073,211 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $86,371,000 after buying an additional 1,265,773 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 20.3% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,908,506 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $84,854,000 after buying an additional 1,504,120 shares during the period. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of BCRX stock opened at $8.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of -4.93 and a beta of 0.57. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.93. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $6.00 and a one year high of $11.31.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.12 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -2.66 earnings per share for the current year.

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.