DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

DURECT Co. (NASDAQ:DRRX) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 809,100 shares, a drop of 6.9% from the January 15th total of 868,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 103,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.8 days. Currently, 2.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of DURECT in a research report on Saturday. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of DURECT in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

DURECT Stock Performance

Shares of DRRX stock traded up $0.02 on Monday, reaching $0.77. The stock had a trading volume of 39,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 63,170. DURECT has a 1 year low of $0.70 and a 1 year high of $1.88. The stock has a market cap of $23.87 million, a P/E ratio of -1.26 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $0.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.12.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On DURECT

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of DURECT by 4.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 319,905 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 14,658 shares during the last quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. raised its position in DURECT by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Richmond Brothers Inc. now owns 1,281,176 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $961,000 after acquiring an additional 138,920 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of DURECT by 266.0% during the 4th quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,196 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 28,486 shares during the last quarter. 28.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About DURECT

DURECT Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines based on its epigenetic regulator program. The company's lead product larsucosterol (DUR-928), an endogenous, orally bioavailable small molecule that is in Phase IIb clinical trial to play a regulatory role in lipid metabolism, stress and inflammatory responses, and cell death and survival to treat alcohol-associated hepatitis, as well as completed Phase Ib clinical trial to treat patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.