Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT) ended Tuesday, December 16, 2025, sharply lower after a strong 2025 run that had pushed expectations—and valuation—into the spotlight. Shares closed at $79.44, down $7.86 (about 9%) from the prior close, after trading as low as $78.84 on the day.
The day’s narrative around Corcept Therapeutics stock wasn’t driven by a single blockbuster headline like an FDA decision or a clinical-trial halt. Instead, it was a classic “high-expectations” session: fresh sell-side coverage, valuation-focused commentary, and investors recalibrating risk ahead of a major FDA catalyst for relacorilant later this month.
Below is a complete roundup of the current news, forecasts, and analyst analysis published on 16.12.2025, plus the near-term catalysts and risk factors that are increasingly shaping how Wall Street prices CORT.
What happened to Corcept Therapeutics stock today
CORT’s move was decisive:
- Close: $79.44
- Day range: $78.84 – $87.30
- Volume: ~1.27 million shares
- Previous close: $87.30
A widely circulated market note highlighted the slide as “over 7%” during the session—consistent with the intraday drawdown seen in the tape. [1]
When a stock that’s been a standout performer sells off this hard without a single “one thing” to blame, markets are usually telling you something subtler: the balance between hype, timing, and valuation just shifted.
Today’s key news: UBS initiates coverage of CORT at Neutral with a $95 target
The most important piece of stock-specific news dated December 16, 2025 was a new analyst initiation:
UBS initiated Corcept Therapeutics with a Neutral (Hold-equivalent) rating and a $95 price target, citing valuation after the stock’s powerful 2025 performance. [2]
Why UBS said “Neutral,” not “Buy”
According to coverage details carried by Investing.com and TheFly via TipRanks:
- UBS pointed to CORT’s roughly 75% year-to-date gain and argued the shares are already pricing in both:
- continued growth in Corcept’s endocrinology franchise, and
- a meaningful contribution from a future oncology launch opportunity in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC). [3]
- UBS also flagged premium valuation (including a high P/E multiple) as a central reason the risk/reward looks “balanced” at current levels. [4]
- On long-range expectations, UBS projected 2030 sales of $2.1 billion across Korlym and relacorilant (both indications), below a broader $2.9 billion sell-side consensus cited in the same report. [5]
- UBS noted short interest around 11%, but said it did not expect “significant downside risk” from current levels. [6]
A second “Hold” framing of the same call
TipRanks’ auto-generated writeup, also dated today, echoed the same core thesis: limited upside because much of the growth narrative appears embedded in the stock price—while execution risks remain (distribution transition, competitive dynamics in ovarian cancer, and modest growth assumptions in hypercortisolism). [7]
Why CORT stock is so sensitive to valuation right now
Corcept is in a market phase where valuation is not a footnote—it’s the story.
CORT entered 2025 as a commercial-stage company historically associated with a single main revenue driver, Korlym (mifepristone) for hyperglycemia secondary to hypercortisolism in adults with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome. The company has disclosed that Korlym was FDA-approved in 2012. [8]
But 2025 also brought a dramatic re-rating, fueled earlier in the year by pivotal oncology data and the prospect of Corcept becoming a multi-product company. Reuters reported in March 2025 that Corcept’s relacorilant combination achieved its primary goal in a late-stage ovarian cancer study, sending shares sharply higher at the time. [9]
By mid-December, the stock’s run created a new question for investors:
How much of the “relacorilant future” is already priced in—before the FDA decides anything?
That’s exactly the tension UBS highlighted on Dec. 16. [10]
The catalyst investors are counting down to: relacorilant and the FDA’s Dec. 30 decision
For traders, short-term investors, and even many long-only funds, the calendar matters as much as the science.
Corcept has previously said the FDA assigned a PDUFA target action date of December 30, 2025 for relacorilant in hypercortisolism. [11]
UBS, in today’s initiation coverage, similarly framed the near-term setup as:
- hypercortisolism approval by year-end 2025, and
- PROC (ovarian cancer) approval expectation in mid-2026 (UBS’s view), with a “balanced” risk/reward. [12]
Translation: the stock is trading in the gravitational field of a binary-ish event, and even “Neutral” research can move shares when positioning is crowded and the year-to-date gain is large.
Forecasts and price targets as of Dec. 16, 2025: what Wall Street expects now
The forecasts investors see today cluster into two buckets: price targets and fundamental projections (revenue/EPS).
Analyst price targets and rating mix
MarketBeat’s compiled analyst snapshot (updated 12/16/2025) shows:
- Average 12-month price target:$127.20
- Range:$95.00 (low) to $145.00 (high)
- Consensus rating:Hold, with a mix of Buy/Hold/Sell ratings behind it [13]
StockAnalysis’ analyst table also explicitly logs today’s event:
- UBS (Ashwani Verma): Hold, Initiates, $95 target, dated Dec 16, 2025 [14]
Meanwhile, UBS’s $95 target was distributed broadly across market newswires today (including paywalled wire references), reinforcing that this initiation was one of the most visible “new” inputs into the stock’s narrative on 16.12.2025. [15]
Revenue and EPS forecasts (consensus-style estimates)
StockAnalysis, using analyst-sourced consensus feeds, summarizes expectations approximately as:
- Revenue (FY 2025):$835.64M (avg)
- Revenue (FY 2026):$1.18B (avg)
- EPS (FY 2025):$1.02 (avg)
- EPS (FY 2026):$1.35 (avg) [16]
These figures are useful as a “market temperature reading,” but remember: forecast aggregations can mix GAAP vs. non-GAAP conventions and can change quickly as analysts update models—especially around FDA events. [17]
Recent fundamentals investors are still digesting heading into the FDA date
Even though today’s headlines were initiation-driven, the market is still anchored to Corcept’s most recent reported quarter and 2025 outlook.
A Nasdaq-hosted Zacks recap of Corcept’s recent earnings highlighted:
- Q3 2025 revenue:$207.6 million, up ~14% year over year, but below consensus expectations cited in the piece
- Q3 EPS:$0.16 (and discussion of estimate comparisons)
- 2025 revenue guidance cut: to $800M–$850M (from a previously higher range)
- Cash and investments (as of Sept. 30, 2025):$524.2M [18]
Today’s UBS coverage also referenced that Q3 dynamic: EPS ahead of some forecasts while revenue came in light versus certain expectations—an earnings mix that can keep valuation debates alive. [19]
Risk factors back in focus: distribution transition, litigation over Korlym, and short interest
CORT isn’t just an FDA story. It’s also an execution-and-legal-risk story.
Distribution changes
Corcept disclosed via an SEC filing that it delivered a notice terminating its Distribution Services Agreement with Optime Care, effective January 8, 2026. [20]
Even if operationally manageable, distribution transitions can create uncertainty around:
- patient onboarding and fulfillment logistics,
- reimbursement flow and payer processes,
- near-term sales “noise” that complicates modeling.
Today’s UBS-linked commentary explicitly pointed to distribution challenges as a factor in the risk/reward calculus. [21]
Antitrust and competitive litigation
Legal overhang remains part of the Korlym narrative. In September 2025, Reuters reported a federal judge ruled Teva could proceed with most of its antitrust lawsuit alleging Corcept and Optime engaged in monopolistic conduct related to Korlym distribution. [22]
Whether or not investors believe the allegations will ultimately stick, litigation risk has two market impacts:
- it can affect future Korlym economics (pricing, access, distribution), and
- it can compress the multiple investors are willing to pay for the “base business.”
Elevated short interest and volatility
UBS flagged short interest around 11% in its initiation coverage. [23]
MarketBeat’s short-interest data indicates that, as of mid-November 2025, short interest was ~10.17 million shares, about 12.18% of float, with a relatively high “days to cover” figure—conditions that can amplify moves in either direction around catalysts. [24]
What investors are watching next after today’s selloff
With Dec. 16’s news now in the market, attention naturally shifts to what can change the story:
- FDA decision on relacorilant in hypercortisolism (PDUFA: Dec. 30, 2025). [25]
- Clarity on commercialization execution (distribution transition timing, patient services continuity, launch readiness). [26]
- Any updates on ovarian cancer regulatory trajectory (UBS frames mid-2026 as a potential timing window). [27]
- Litigation milestones that could re-rate Korlym durability up or down. [28]
- Analyst model updates—today’s UBS initiation may prompt other firms to refresh targets, particularly if CORT remains volatile into year-end. [29]
Bottom line
On December 16, 2025, Corcept Therapeutics stock sold off hard—not because the core relacorilant thesis vanished, but because valuation and timing suddenly mattered more than momentum.
The day’s news flow was dominated by UBS initiating coverage at Neutral with a $95 target and framing the stock as already discounting much of the expected upside. [30] Meanwhile, consensus-style dashboards still show a wider spread of targets and forecasts, underlining how polarized expectations remain as the Dec. 30 FDA date approaches. [31]
References
1. www.gurufocus.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. www.investing.com, 7. www.tipranks.com, 8. www.sec.gov, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.investing.com, 11. ir.corcept.com, 12. www.investing.com, 13. www.marketbeat.com, 14. stockanalysis.com, 15. www.marketscreener.com, 16. stockanalysis.com, 17. stockanalysis.com, 18. www.nasdaq.com, 19. www.investing.com, 20. www.sec.gov, 21. www.tipranks.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.investing.com, 24. www.marketbeat.com, 25. ir.corcept.com, 26. www.sec.gov, 27. www.investing.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. stockanalysis.com, 30. www.investing.com, 31. www.marketbeat.com
