Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

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

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CERS. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Freedom Broker initiated coverage on Cerus in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.50 price target for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cerus currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.25.

Cerus Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CERS opened at $2.07 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $2.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Cerus has a one year low of $1.47 and a one year high of $3.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $418.04 million, a PE ratio of -69.00 and a beta of 1.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cerus news, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 30,000 shares of the 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 sale, the insider owned 936,657 shares in the company, valued at $2,791,237.86. This trade represents a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 5.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cerus

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its position in Cerus by 48.6% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 15,064 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 4,926 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Cerus by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 507,455 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $924,000 after purchasing an additional 5,365 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its position in Cerus by 6.9% in the first quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 103,192 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $188,000 after buying an additional 6,651 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd boosted its position in Cerus by 62.6% in the third quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 20,650 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 7,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneX Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Cerus in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

About Cerus

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.