Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Acquires 325,959 Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $BCRX

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) by 17.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,230,105 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 325,959 shares during the period. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals comprises about 1.2% of Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned 0.88% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals worth $21,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.4% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 63,463 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $476,000 after purchasing an additional 1,458 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 12,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 1,494 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 22,105 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $198,000 after buying an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Counterweight Ventures LLC lifted its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Counterweight Ventures LLC now owns 95,384 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $744,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,231 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 2,115 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BCRX. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, June 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, July 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price objective for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of BCRX opened at $9.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.25 and a beta of 0.55. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $6.00 and a one year high of $11.22. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.57.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by ($3.04). BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.The business had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.12 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.58 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.