Rafferty Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $BCRX

Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) by 22.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 369,322 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,371 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals were worth $2,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,790,881 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $165,393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246,633 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 8.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,505,392 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $76,208,000 after buying an additional 691,988 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 1.9% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,054,610 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $45,296,000 after buying an additional 93,973 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2,103.7% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,278,555 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,336,000 after buying an additional 4,084,403 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 97.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,841,155 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,457,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405,498 shares in the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citizens Jmp dropped their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, December 29th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore started coverage on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BioCryst Pharmaceuticals news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 21,773 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.65, for a total value of $166,563.45. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 398,751 shares in the company, valued at $3,050,445.15. This trade represents a 5.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

BCRX stock opened at $8.57 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $7.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.14 and a beta of 0.74. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $6.00 and a fifty-two week high of $11.31.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The biotechnology company reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $1.05. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 30.16% and a negative return on equity of 84.33%. The company had revenue of $163.28 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.13) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 209.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.