Vivek K. Jayaraman Sells 33,999 Shares of Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS - Get Free Report) COO Vivek K. Jayaraman sold 33,999 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.50, for a total value of $50,998.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 1,507,315 shares in the company, valued at $2,260,972.50. This represents a 2.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Cerus Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CERS traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.47. The company's stock had a trading volume of 637,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,302,988. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.78. Cerus Co. has a 1 year low of $1.38 and a 1 year high of $2.54. The firm has a market cap of $272.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.41 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). The company had revenue of $50.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $50.81 million. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 40.55% and a negative net margin of 11.60%. Research analysts forecast that Cerus Co. will post -0.08 EPS for the current year.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price objective on shares of Cerus in a research report on Friday, February 21st.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake 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. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Cerus by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 8,319,841 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $12,813,000 after acquiring an additional 994,007 shares during the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC grew its position in Cerus by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 6,393,979 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $9,847,000 after acquiring an additional 387,603 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cerus by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,454,525 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $6,862,000 after acquiring an additional 39,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Cerus by 2.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,738,893 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $6,506,000 after acquiring an additional 79,505 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company's stock.

Cerus Company Profile

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.