Vivek Jayaraman Sells 16,667 Shares of Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) COO Vivek Jayaraman sold 16,667 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $50,001.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,673,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,020,122. The trade was a 0.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Cerus Price Performance

Cerus stock opened at $2.59 on Thursday. Cerus Corporation has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $3.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $518.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -51.80 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cerus

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Cerus during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. MML Investors Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Cerus by 68.4% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 18,712 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 7,603 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Bingham Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 78.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cerus in a report on Monday, January 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. BTIG Research raised shares of Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cerus currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.00.

About Cerus

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.