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

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)’s stock price traded up 7.8% on Wednesday . The stock 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

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Wedbush cut their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.70.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 8.4%

The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.14 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $9.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.98.

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

Insider Activity at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

In other news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 400,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,666,432.45. The trade was a 27.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BCRX. Phocas Financial Corp. purchased a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth about $1,956,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,790,881 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $165,393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246,633 shares during the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc purchased a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth about $7,126,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,010,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al raised its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 106.5% in the 4th quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 233,354 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,820,000 after purchasing an additional 120,350 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.