Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) Short Interest Update

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totaling 19,696,885 shares, a growth of 82.9% from the May 31st total of 10,766,701 shares. Currently, 10.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,320,242 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CERS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Zacks Research raised Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.00.

Insider Transactions at Cerus

In other Cerus news, CFO Kevin Dennis Green sold 33,676 shares of the company’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 $99,007.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,062,188 shares in the company, valued at $3,122,832.72. This represents a 3.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 24,329 shares of the 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 $71,527.26. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 966,657 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,841,971.58. This trade represents a 2.46% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders sold 256,071 shares of company stock worth $747,894. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Cerus by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,218,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,217,000 after buying an additional 39,310 shares during the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cerus by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 4,114,061 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,488,000 after purchasing an additional 148,812 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Cerus by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 578,900 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,054,000 after buying an additional 80,900 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Cerus by 56.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 34,676 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 12,536 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Cerus during the 1st quarter worth about $206,000. 78.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cerus Stock Up 5.3%

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 has a 52 week low of $1.15 and a 52 week high of $3.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last released 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. The business had revenue of $59.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.68 million. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 15.18% and a negative net margin of 4.41%. On average, analysts predict that Cerus will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Cerus Company Profile

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.