Insider Selling: Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) CEO Sells $299,641.86 in Stock

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) CEO William Mariner Greenman sold 101,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.94, for a total transaction of $299,641.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,053,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,855,925.84. The trade was a 1.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Cerus Price Performance

NASDAQ:CERS opened at $3.16 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $633.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.20 and a beta of 1.77. Cerus Corporation has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $3.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $2.61 and a 200 day moving average of $2.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.02. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 15.18% and a negative net margin of 4.41%.The business had revenue of $59.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.68 million. On average, research analysts expect that Cerus Corporation will post -0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research raised shares of Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cerus currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cerus by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,783,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $17,147,000 after buying an additional 62,663 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Cerus by 2.6% in the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 8,533,758 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,033,000 after acquiring an additional 213,917 shares during the period. Senvest Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cerus by 3.8% in the first quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 4,114,061 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,488,000 after acquiring an additional 148,812 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cerus by 17.6% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,470,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,517,000 after acquiring an additional 519,301 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Cerus by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 2,423,741 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,993,000 after acquiring an additional 25,771 shares during the last quarter. 78.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Cerus

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company dedicated to enhancing the safety of blood transfusions worldwide. Its flagship offering, the INTERCEPT Blood System, employs pathogen reduction technology designed to inactivate a broad spectrum of viruses, bacteria, and parasites in donated platelets and plasma. This approach aims to mitigate the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections and improve blood component safety for patients.

The INTERCEPT platform integrates seamlessly into existing blood center workflows, providing a one-step treatment process for collected blood products.