Traders Purchase Large Volume of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Call Options (NASDAQ:BCRX)

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 6,158 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 593% compared to the average daily volume of 888 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BCRX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 21.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 7,483 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 19.4% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 16,274 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 2,644 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 5.9% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 49,347 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $375,000 after buying an additional 2,734 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 30.0% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 7.7% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 51,012 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,653 shares during the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

BCRX stock opened at $8.61 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $7.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.71. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $4.03 and a fifty-two week high of $9.00. The firm has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a PE ratio of -14.11 and a beta of 1.75.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07). The business had revenue of $117.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.19) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema.