Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) Stock Moved Up to “Buy” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CERS. Freedom Broker assumed coverage on shares of Cerus in a report on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $6.50 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research note on Monday, September 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.25.

Cerus Stock Down 5.2%

Shares of NASDAQ CERS opened at $2.02 on Friday. Cerus has a 52-week low of $1.42 and a 52-week high of $3.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.96. The stock has a market cap of $407.94 million, a P/E ratio of -67.33 and a beta of 1.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $2.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.44.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Chrystal Jensen sold 30,000 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.98, for a total value of $89,400.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 936,657 shares in the company, valued at $2,791,237.86. This trade represents a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Cerus during the second quarter worth $64,868,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Cerus by 12.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,753,962 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $13,882,000 after buying an additional 539,060 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Cerus by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 4,492,985 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $10,693,000 after buying an additional 353,453 shares during the period. Senvest Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 148,812 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC bought a new position in Cerus in the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,026,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Cerus Company Profile

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on improving the safety of blood transfusions. Headquartered in Concord, California, the company develops and commercializes technologies designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections and other threats to the blood supply.

Its principal product platform is the INTERCEPT Blood System, which uses pathogen-reduction technology to treat donated blood components. The system is available for platelets and plasma in multiple markets and is designed to inactivate a broad range of viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens.