Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 2,733,012 Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $BCRX

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lessened its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) by 88.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 359,580 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 2,733,012 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals were worth $2,805,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BCRX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,790,881 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $165,393,000 after buying an additional 1,246,633 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. lifted its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 159.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. now owns 12,169,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $92,363,000 after acquiring an additional 7,477,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,505,392 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $76,208,000 after acquiring an additional 691,988 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,225,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $39,665,000 after acquiring an additional 947,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP grew its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 4,419,629 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $33,545,000 after acquiring an additional 131,406 shares during the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

In other news, insider Alane P. Barnes sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.15, for a total value of $1,372,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 400,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,666,432.45. This trade represents a 27.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BCRX has been the subject of several recent research reports. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Evercore started coverage on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.64.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

BCRX opened at $9.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 7.88 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $7.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.49. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.00 and a 52-week high of $11.31.

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

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.