Dalton Investments Inc. Increases Holdings in DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX)

Key Points

• Dalton Investments Inc. increased its stake in DURECT Corporation by 109.1% during Q1, owning a total of 512,312 shares valued at approximately $411,000.
• Research analysts have issued mixed ratings on DURECT, with Wall Street Zen initiating coverage with a "sell" rating and Northland Capital Markets downgrading it from a "strong-buy" to a "hold" rating.
• DURECT's stock is currently trading at $1.87, with a market capitalization of $58.04 million and a 52-week price range between $0.48 and $2.64.

Dalton Investments Inc. boosted its position in DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX - Free Report) by 109.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 512,312 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 267,312 shares during the period. DURECT accounts for about 0.2% of Dalton Investments Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Dalton Investments Inc. owned approximately 1.65% of DURECT worth $411,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Separately, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in DURECT by 266.0% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.03% of the company's stock.

DURECT Price Performance

DURECT stock remained flat at $1.90 during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company had a trading volume of 304,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 452,557. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $0.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $0.79. DURECT Corporation has a 1-year low of $0.48 and a 1-year high of $2.64. The company has a market capitalization of $58.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.00 and a beta of 0.83.

DURECT (NASDAQ:DRRX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 12th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $0.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $0.32 million. DURECT had a negative return on equity of 237.49% and a negative net margin of 96.19%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that DURECT Corporation will post -0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DRRX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen initiated coverage on DURECT in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. They issued a "sell" rating on the stock. Northland Capmk lowered DURECT from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th.

DURECT 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.