Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCPH) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCPH) saw a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,060,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the March 15th total of 5,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 540,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 11.2 days. Currently, 12.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Deciphera Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DCPH. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Deciphera Pharmaceuticals by 356.7% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,663,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,179,000 after buying an additional 2,861,642 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Deciphera Pharmaceuticals by 125.5% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,959,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,161,000 after buying an additional 1,090,368 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Deciphera Pharmaceuticals by 27.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,845,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,917,000 after buying an additional 1,047,807 shares during the period. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. lifted its stake in Deciphera Pharmaceuticals by 176.2% in the fourth quarter. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. now owns 1,021,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,482,000 after buying an additional 651,800 shares during the period. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 5,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,876,000 after purchasing an additional 588,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.96% of the company’s stock.

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 0.3 %

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $14.80. The stock had a trading volume of 17,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 518,300. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of -6.48 and a beta of 0.39. Deciphera Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $9.90 and a 12 month high of $17.73.

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:DCPH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.54) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.58) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $48.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.93 million. Deciphera Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 49.44% and a negative net margin of 119.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.60) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Deciphera Pharmaceuticals will post -2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on DCPH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Deciphera Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Deciphera Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.00.

About Deciphera Pharmaceuticals

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops drugs to enhance the lives of cancer patients by addressing key mechanisms of drug resistance that limit the rate and durability of response to existing cancer therapies in the United States and internationally. Its lead drug candidate is QINLOCK used for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), as well as in INTRIGUE Phase 3 study to treat second-line GIST.