BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,770,000 shares, an increase of 23.5% from the February 28th total of 16,010,000 shares. Currently, 10.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.3 days.

Institutional Trading of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 80.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,198 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 4,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $80,000. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, January 31st. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price (up from $10.00) on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.57.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $7.25 on Wednesday. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $4.03 and a 12-month high of $9.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.82. The company has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.89 and a beta of 1.84.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.07) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $131.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $126.64 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. Analysts predict that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema.