Cerus Corporation $CERS Shares Bought by UBS Group AG

UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) by 227.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,142,502 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 793,244 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG’s holdings in Cerus were worth $2,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,783,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $17,147,000 after acquiring an additional 62,663 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 2.6% during the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 8,533,758 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,033,000 after acquiring an additional 213,917 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 17.6% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,470,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,517,000 after acquiring an additional 519,301 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 4.2% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 2,418,263 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,410,000 after acquiring an additional 97,467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Cerus by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,676,279 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,453,000 after acquiring an additional 92,577 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cerus

In other news, CEO William Mariner Greenman sold 447,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.66, for a total transaction of $743,276.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 4,998,493 shares in the company, valued at $8,297,498.38. This trade represents a 8.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 101,740 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.66, for a total value of $168,888.40. Following the transaction, the insider owned 777,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,419.26. This represents a 11.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,210,949 shares of company stock valued at $2,156,291. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on CERS shares. Wall Street Zen raised Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Zacks Research upgraded Cerus from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded Cerus from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $4.00.

Cerus Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of Cerus stock opened at $2.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $565.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.40 and a beta of 1.62. Cerus Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $1.15 and a fifty-two week high of $3.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $2.14 and a 200 day moving average of $2.11.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.02. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 15.18% and a negative net margin of 4.41%.The company had revenue of $59.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.68 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Cerus Corporation will post -0.02 earnings per share 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.