Insider Selling: Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) CEO Sells 60,984 Shares of Stock

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) CEO William Mariner Greenman sold 60,984 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.50, for a total transaction of $91,476.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,309,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,464,637. This represents a 1.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

William Mariner Greenman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 4th, William Mariner Greenman sold 23,023 shares of Cerus stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.55, for a total transaction of $35,685.65.

Cerus Stock Down 2.6 %

CERS stock traded down $0.04 during trading on Monday, reaching $1.47. 1,812,528 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,306,882. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.79. Cerus Co. has a 12 month low of $1.38 and a 12 month high of $2.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 2.59. The company has a market capitalization of $273.11 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.36 and a beta of 1.56.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). Cerus had a negative return on equity of 40.55% and a negative net margin of 11.60%. The company had revenue of $50.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.81 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cerus Co. will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Cerus by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 20,814,752 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,055,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589,721 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in Cerus by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 8,319,841 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,813,000 after buying an additional 994,007 shares in the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC increased its position in Cerus by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 6,393,979 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $9,847,000 after buying an additional 387,603 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Cerus by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,454,525 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,862,000 after buying an additional 39,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Cerus by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,738,893 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,506,000 after buying an additional 79,505 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective on shares of Cerus in a report on Friday, February 21st.

Cerus Company Profile

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.