Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock Has Average Target Price of $5.25 According to Brokerages

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.25.

CERS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a report on Monday, September 14th. Finally, Freedom Broker began coverage on shares of Cerus in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.50 target price on the stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cerus

In other Cerus news, CEO William Greenman sold 101,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were 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 owned 5,053,036 shares in the company, valued at $14,855,925.84. This trade represents a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO Vivek K. Jayaraman sold 42,359 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.94, for a total value of $124,535.46. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,694,348 shares in the company, valued at $4,981,383.12. The trade was a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 232,283 shares of company stock worth $684,112. 5.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cerus

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Cerus during the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,868,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings 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 worth $13,882,000 after acquiring an additional 539,060 shares in the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC grew its position in Cerus by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 4,114,061 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,488,000 after acquiring an additional 148,812 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in Cerus during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,026,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its position in Cerus by 1,154.3% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 1,491,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,354,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,243 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Cerus Trading Up 0.4%

Cerus stock opened at $2.62 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $2.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $527.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -87.33 and a beta of 1.80. Cerus has a 12 month low of $1.38 and a 12 month high of $3.47.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). The company had revenue of $63.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.90 million. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 10.19% and a negative net margin of 3.06%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cerus will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

About Cerus

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on improving the safety of blood transfusions. The company develops and commercializes technologies designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections by inactivating certain viruses, bacteria, parasites and white blood cells in donated blood components.

Its principal product platform is the INTERCEPT Blood System, which uses amotosalen and ultraviolet A light to treat blood components. The system is used with platelet and plasma components, and Cerus has also developed applications for red blood cells and cryoprecipitation.