Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) Short Interest Update

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,420,000 shares, a drop of 6.0% from the July 15th total of 6,830,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 970,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cerus news, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 21,605 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.50, for a total transaction of $54,012.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 438,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,095,017.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cerus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CERS. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Cerus during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $97,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Cerus by 10.9% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 73,372 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 7,209 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cerus by 938.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 215,901 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 195,112 shares during the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cerus by 390.4% during the 2nd quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 1,469,754 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,587,000 after buying an additional 1,170,060 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Cerus by 658.9% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 263,839 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $464,000 after buying an additional 229,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Cerus Trading Down 6.4 %

NASDAQ:CERS opened at $2.18 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.98. Cerus has a fifty-two week low of $1.21 and a fifty-two week high of $2.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $403.06 million, a PE ratio of -12.82 and a beta of 1.20.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $45.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.50 million. Cerus had a negative net margin of 14.15% and a negative return on equity of 44.14%. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.07) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Cerus will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Cerus from $3.00 to $4.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd.

About Cerus

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.