Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New $376,000 Investment in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 244,073 shares of the biotechnology company's stock, valued at approximately $376,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Cerus as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CERS. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cerus by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,415,453 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $7,685,000 after acquiring an additional 69,950 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,575,049 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $2,740,000 after purchasing an additional 219,755 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cerus by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,738,893 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $6,506,000 after purchasing an additional 79,505 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Cerus by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 264,672 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $461,000 after purchasing an additional 28,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.37% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Vivek K. Jayaraman sold 29,985 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.45, for a total transaction of $43,478.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 1,477,330 shares in the company, valued at $2,142,128.50. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO William Mariner Greenman sold 23,023 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.55, for a total value of $35,685.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,230,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,006,500. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 441,150 shares of company stock valued at $665,210 over the last three months. 3.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cerus Trading Up 11.3 %

Cerus stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $1.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,363,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,259,983. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.92. Cerus Co. has a 12 month low of $1.12 and a 12 month high of $2.54. The stock has a market cap of $256.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.55 and a beta of 1.70.

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

Cerus 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.