Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Cerus Corporation $CERS

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its stake in Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) by 17.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,709,959 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 975,218 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Cerus were worth $9,703,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CERS. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Cerus by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 81,556 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 6,094 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cerus by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 93,343 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $148,000 after purchasing an additional 7,355 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Cerus by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 231,721 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 7,663 shares in the last quarter. Bouvel Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cerus by 2.1% during the third quarter. Bouvel Investment Partners LLC now owns 496,189 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $789,000 after buying an additional 10,126 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC raised its stake in Cerus by 9.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 120,906 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $192,000 after buying an additional 10,252 shares in the last quarter. 78.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CERS has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen cut Cerus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Zacks Research cut Cerus from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cerus in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cerus in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cerus

In other Cerus news, CFO Kevin Dennis Green sold 127,544 shares of the business’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 $211,723.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,040,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,727,314.66. The trade was a 10.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 101,740 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 777,361 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold 1,194,282 shares of company stock valued at $2,106,290 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Cerus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CERS opened at $2.08 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.95. Cerus Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $1.15 and a fifty-two week high of $2.95. The company has a market capitalization of $399.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.00 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.73.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $64.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.31 million. Cerus had a negative return on equity of 26.09% and a negative net margin of 7.58%. Analysts expect that Cerus Corporation will post -0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cerus Company Profile

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.