Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) Insider Sells $27,476.05 in Stock

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 18,949 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.45, for a total value of $27,476.05. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 715,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,037,982.50. The trade was a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Cerus Stock Performance

Shares of CERS stock remained flat at $1.45 during midday trading on Monday. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,979,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,302,541. Cerus Co. has a 1 year low of $1.38 and a 1 year high of $2.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 2.59. The firm has a market cap of $269.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.18 and a beta of 1.56.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). Cerus had a negative return on equity of 40.55% and a negative net margin of 11.60%. The firm had revenue of $50.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.81 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cerus Co. will post -0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cerus

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cerus by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,415,453 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,685,000 after acquiring an additional 69,950 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,738,893 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,506,000 after buying an additional 79,505 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,575,049 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,740,000 after buying an additional 219,755 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 264,672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 28,383 shares during the period. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 20,814,752 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,055,000 after buying an additional 2,589,721 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 target price on shares of Cerus in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

About Cerus

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.