DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

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 drop in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 400,900 shares, adropof47.6% from the July 15th total of 764,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 980,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days. Approximately1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Approximately1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 980,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen started coverage on shares of DURECT in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. They set a "sell" rating on the stock. Northland Capmk downgraded DURECT from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th.

Institutional Trading of DURECT

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Richmond Brothers Inc. lifted its position in shares of DURECT by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,453,735 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $923,000 after purchasing an additional 107,329 shares during the period. Ingalls & Snyder LLC boosted its position in DURECT by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 1,349,435 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock valued at $857,000 after acquiring an additional 14,637 shares in the last quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of DURECT by 45.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dalton Investments Inc. now owns 745,000 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock valued at $473,000 after buying an additional 232,688 shares in the last quarter. Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC grew its position in shares of DURECT by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC now owns 314,150 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock worth $200,000 after buying an additional 17,800 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC bought a new position in shares of DURECT in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.03% of the company's stock.

DURECT Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of DURECT stock traded down $0.01 during trading on Monday, reaching $1.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 778,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 455,197. The company has a market cap of $59.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.00 and a beta of 0.83. The firm's 50-day moving average is $0.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $0.80. DURECT has a 52-week low of $0.48 and a 52-week high of $2.64.

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

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