Financial Review: Cerus (CERS) & Its Rivals

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) is one of 511 public companies in the “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Cerus to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.4% of Cerus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.5% of shares of all “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of Cerus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of shares of all “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cerus and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cerus	$206.13 million	-$15.63 million	-66.17
Cerus Competitors	$1.89 billion	$136.85 million	5.95

Cerus’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Cerus. Cerus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Cerus has a beta of 1.84, meaning that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cerus’ peers have a beta of 5.41, meaning that their average share price is 441% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Cerus and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cerus	1	1	3	0	2.40
Cerus Competitors	4302	10596	18377	837	2.46

Cerus presently has a consensus target price of $5.25, indicating a potential upside of 164.48%. As a group, “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies have a potential upside of 21.30%. Given Cerus’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cerus is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Cerus and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cerus	-3.23%	-10.44%	-3.42%
Cerus Competitors	-300.62%	-179.55%	-22.71%

Summary

Cerus peers beat Cerus on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Cerus

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on improving the safety of blood components used for transfusions. Its primary offering is the INTERCEPT Blood System, which uses a pathogen-reduction process designed to inactivate a broad range of viruses, bacteria, parasites and white blood cells in donated blood components. INTERCEPT is used to process platelet and plasma components. Cerus also develops related processing devices and supplies for blood centers and transfusion services.