Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Shares of Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.25.

A number of analysts have recently commented on CERS shares. Freedom Broker started coverage on Cerus in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $6.50 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday.

Cerus Trading Down 5.2%

NASDAQ:CERS opened at $2.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Cerus has a 1-year low of $1.42 and a 1-year high of $3.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $407.94 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -67.33 and a beta of 1.84. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $2.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.44.

Insider Transactions at Cerus

In other Cerus news, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider owned 936,657 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,791,237.86. This represents a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CERS. Globeflex Capital L P acquired a new position in shares of Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,525,000. State Street Corp increased its position 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 stake in Cerus during the 2nd quarter worth $64,868,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Cerus during the 2nd quarter worth $2,536,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Cerus during the 2nd quarter worth $7,026,000. 78.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.