BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) Trading Up 6% – Time to Buy?

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) was up 6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $10.59 and last traded at $10.4350. 1,106,497 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 4,964,359 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.84.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BCRX. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, July 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price target for the company. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.60.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of -7.03 and a beta of 0.55.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $218.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $183.28 million. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 86.89% and a negative net margin of 40.90%.BioCryst Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BCRX. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth approximately $238,930,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,273,375 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $173,732,000 after acquiring an additional 482,494 shares in the last quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $123,452,000. Deerfield Management Company L.P. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 7,477,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,073,211 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $86,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265,773 shares during the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

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.