DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) Short Interest Update

Key Points

• DURECT Corporation experienced a significant decrease in short interest, dropping by 47.6% in July, with the total short interest at 400,900 shares as of July 31st.
• Analysts have set new ratings for DURECT, with Wall Street Zen issuing a "sell" rating and Northland Capital downgrading it from "strong-buy" to "hold."
• The company's stock is currently trading at $1.90 with a market cap of $59 million, and it reported earnings of ($0.07) per share, beating expectations.

DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 400,900 shares, adeclineof47.6% from the July 15th total of 764,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 980,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.4 days. Currently,1.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Currently,1.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 980,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 266.0% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 28,486 shares in the last quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. boosted its stake in DURECT by 109.1% during the first quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. now owns 512,312 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $411,000 after acquiring an additional 267,312 shares in the last quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. boosted its stake in DURECT by 5.1% during the first quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,346,406 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,080,000 after acquiring an additional 65,230 shares in the last quarter. Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 6.0% during the second quarter. Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC now owns 314,150 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $200,000 after acquiring an additional 17,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC boosted its stake in DURECT by 1.1% during the second quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 1,349,435 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 14,637 shares in the last quarter. 28.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on DRRX. Northland Capmk lowered shares of DURECT from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Wall Street Zen began coverage on shares of DURECT in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. They set a "sell" rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold".

DURECT Trading Up 1.1%

NASDAQ DRRX traded up $0.02 on Friday, hitting $1.92. 416,978 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,111,927. The company has a market cap of $59.62 million, a PE ratio of -19.20 and a beta of 0.83. DURECT has a 12 month low of $0.4801 and a 12 month high of $2.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $1.10 and a 200-day moving average of $0.84.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 12th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $0.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.32 million. DURECT had a negative net margin of 96.19% and a negative return on equity of 259.16%. On average, analysts expect that DURECT will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

DURECT Company Profile

DURECT Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines based on its epigenetic regulator program. The company's lead product larsucosterol (DUR-928), an endogenous, orally bioavailable small molecule that is in Phase IIb clinical trial to play a regulatory role in lipid metabolism, stress and inflammatory responses, and cell death and survival to treat alcohol-associated hepatitis, as well as completed Phase Ib clinical trial to treat patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.