Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,920,000 shares, a decrease of 12.7% from the October 31st total of 7,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,440,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Cerus Stock Performance

Shares of Cerus stock traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $1.77. The stock had a trading volume of 1,045,076 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,327,138. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $1.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 2.59. Cerus has a 12-month low of $1.38 and a 12-month high of $2.59.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 451.1% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 14,879 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 12,179 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Cerus by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,983,963 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $18,870,000 after buying an additional 113,292 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Cerus by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 192,873 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $365,000 after buying an additional 8,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Cerus by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,186,564 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,088,000 after buying an additional 78,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Secure Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. 78.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Cerus from $6.00 to $3.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th.

Cerus Company Profile

Cerus Corporation operates as a biomedical products company. The company focuses on developing and commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. Its INTERCEPT Blood System, a proprietary technology for controlling biological replication that is designed to reduce blood-borne pathogens in donated blood components intended for transfusion.