Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Freedom Broker started coverage on Cerus in a report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.50 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.25.

Cerus Stock Up 1.7%

CERS opened at $2.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $477.60 million, a PE ratio of -79.00 and a beta of 1.83. Cerus has a twelve month low of $1.38 and a twelve month high of $3.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $2.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cerus will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cerus

In other Cerus news, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.98, for a total value of $89,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 936,657 shares in the company, valued at $2,791,237.86. The trade was a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cerus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Globeflex Capital L P acquired a new stake in Cerus during the second quarter worth approximately $1,525,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,753,962 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $13,882,000 after buying an additional 539,060 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at $64,868,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,536,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,026,000. 78.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cerus Company Profile

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on improving the safety of blood transfusions. Headquartered in Concord, California, the company develops and commercializes technologies designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections and other threats to the blood supply.

Its principal product platform is the INTERCEPT Blood System, which uses pathogen-reduction technology to treat donated blood components. The system is available for platelets and plasma in multiple markets and is designed to inactivate a broad range of viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens.