Insider Selling: Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) COO Sells 16,667 Shares of Stock

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) COO Vivek Jayaraman sold 16,667 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total value of $50,001.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,656,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,970,121. The trade was a 1.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Cerus Trading Down 4.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:CERS traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $2.70. The company had a trading volume of 2,435,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,300,433. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.63. Cerus Corporation has a 1-year low of $1.15 and a 1-year high of $3.15. The firm has a market cap of $541.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.00 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.14.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.02. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 15.18% and a negative net margin of 4.41%.The business had revenue of $59.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.68 million. Research analysts predict that Cerus Corporation will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CERS shares. Zacks Research upgraded Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cerus

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cerus by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,783,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $17,147,000 after acquiring an additional 62,663 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in Cerus by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 8,533,758 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $12,033,000 after buying an additional 213,917 shares during the period. Senvest Management LLC increased its position in Cerus by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 4,114,061 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,488,000 after buying an additional 148,812 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Cerus by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,470,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,517,000 after buying an additional 519,301 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Cerus by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 2,423,741 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,993,000 after purchasing an additional 25,771 shares during the period. 78.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cerus Company Profile

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company dedicated to enhancing the safety of blood transfusions worldwide. Its flagship offering, the INTERCEPT Blood System, employs pathogen reduction technology designed to inactivate a broad spectrum of viruses, bacteria, and parasites in donated platelets and plasma. This approach aims to mitigate the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections and improve blood component safety for patients.

The INTERCEPT platform integrates seamlessly into existing blood center workflows, providing a one-step treatment process for collected blood products.