Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) Short Interest Down 35.3% in June

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 12,738,396 shares, a decrease of 35.3% from the June 15th total of 19,696,885 shares. Currently, 6.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,078,951 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Insider Transactions at Cerus

In other news, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 24,329 shares of the business’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 $71,527.26. Following the transaction, the insider owned 966,657 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,841,971.58. The trade was a 2.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Kevin Dennis Green sold 33,676 shares of the company’s 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 $99,007.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,062,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,122,832.72. This trade represents a 3.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 256,071 shares of company stock worth $747,894. 5.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Cerus Price Performance

Shares of CERS stock opened at $3.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $2.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.37. 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 has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $3.47. The stock has a market cap of $627.16 million, a PE ratio of -62.60 and a beta of 1.77.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $59.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.68 million. Cerus had a negative net margin of 4.41% and a negative return on equity of 15.18%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cerus will post -0.02 EPS for the current year.

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.