BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) Shares Down 5.8% – Time to Sell?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)’s stock price traded down 5.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $6.69 and last traded at $6.7550. 1,878,043 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 4,889,599 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.17.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BCRX shares. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.50.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -133.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.80.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The biotechnology company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.01). BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 1.46% and a negative return on equity of 4.24%. The firm had revenue of $159.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $162.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 36.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -0.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

In other news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 21,773 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.65, for a total value of $166,563.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 398,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,050,445.15. This represents a 5.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 183,453 shares of company stock worth $1,330,965 in the last quarter. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Deerfield Management Company L.P. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 7,477,000 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2,103.7% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,278,555 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,084,403 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 25,631.2% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,620,637 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,441,000 after purchasing an additional 3,606,566 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 152.3% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,373,489 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,266,000 after buying an additional 1,432,824 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 97.9% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,841,155 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,457,000 after buying an additional 1,405,498 shares during the last quarter. 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.