BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Citizens Jmp boosted their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.60.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $9.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.47 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.09. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $6.00 and a 12 month high of $11.22.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.15. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 86.89% and a negative net margin of 40.90%.The firm had revenue of $218.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $183.28 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 231.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,091,765 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,474,000 after purchasing an additional 3,556,208 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $14,880,000. Perceptive Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 135.1% in the 1st quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 7,434,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $70,772,000 after buying an additional 4,271,504 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,808,000. Finally, Rice Hall James & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $23,320,000. 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.