Chrystal Jensen Sells 30,000 Shares of Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) insider Chrystal Jensen sold 30,000 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.98, for a total transaction of $89,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 936,657 shares in the company, valued at $2,791,237.86. This represents a 3.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Chrystal Jensen also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, June 30th, Chrystal Jensen sold 24,329 shares of Cerus stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.94, for a total transaction of $71,527.26.

Cerus Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CERS opened at $2.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $556.20 million, a PE ratio of -92.00 and a beta of 1.81. Cerus Corporation has a 1 year low of $1.15 and a 1 year high of $3.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). The company had revenue of $63.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.90 million. Cerus had a negative net margin of 3.06% and a negative return on equity of 10.19%. Equities analysts anticipate that Cerus Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cerus

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cerus during the second quarter valued at approximately $64,868,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,783,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $17,147,000 after buying an additional 62,663 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 2.6% in the second 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 lifted its stake in shares of Cerus by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 4,114,061 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,488,000 after acquiring an additional 148,812 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cerus by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,470,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,517,000 after acquiring an additional 519,301 shares during the last quarter. 78.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Cerus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. BTIG Research raised Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cerus currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.00.

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.