SG Americas Securities LLC Invests $121,000 in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS)

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 69,680 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $121,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Cerus in the second quarter valued at about $97,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake 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 raised its stake in Cerus by 938.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 215,901 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 195,112 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Cerus by 390.4% in the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 1,469,754 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,060 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Cerus by 658.9% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 263,839 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 229,074 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Cerus

In other news, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 21,605 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,095,017.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 21,605 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,095,017.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevin Dennis Green sold 28,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.18, for a total value of $61,879.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 590,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,286,995.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Cerus from $6.00 to $3.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3.63.

Cerus Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ CERS opened at $1.67 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $308.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.82 and a beta of 1.18. Cerus Co. has a 12 month low of $1.25 and a 12 month high of $2.59. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $1.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.92.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $45.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.50 million. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 44.27% and a negative net margin of 14.15%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.07) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cerus Co. will post -0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cerus 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.