Perceptive Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 3,162,529 BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $BCRX

Perceptive Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,162,529 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,668,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Phocas Financial Corp. acquired a new position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,956,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,790,881 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $165,393,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246,633 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc acquired a new position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,126,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board acquired a new position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $2,010,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al grew its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 106.5% in the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 233,354 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 120,350 shares during the period. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BCRX opened at $8.95 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a PE ratio of -5.03 and a beta of 0.57. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.00 and a 52-week high of $10.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.16.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by ($3.04). The firm had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.12 million. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 76.36% and a negative net margin of 51.71%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on BCRX shares. Evercore started coverage on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Wedbush decreased their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen cut BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.70.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals 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.