BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) Trading 7.8% Higher – Still a Buy?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)’s stock price shot up 7.8% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $9.23 and last traded at $9.1270. 2,657,684 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 5,109,965 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BCRX. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore assumed coverage on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.70.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 8.4%

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $9.17 and a 200-day moving average of $7.98. The company has a market capitalization of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.14 and a beta of 0.57.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($3.04). The business had revenue of $156.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.12 million. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.15, for a total transaction of $1,372,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 63,463 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $476,000 after acquiring an additional 1,458 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 12,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 22,105 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $198,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Counterweight Ventures LLC raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Counterweight Ventures LLC now owns 95,384 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,231 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 2,115 shares in the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.