Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,920,000 shares, a decline of 12.7% from the October 31st total of 7,930,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,440,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cerus

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Cerus by 451.1% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 14,879 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 12,179 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Cerus by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,983,963 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $18,870,000 after purchasing an additional 113,292 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Cerus by 4.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 192,873 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $365,000 after purchasing an additional 8,982 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Cerus by 7.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,186,564 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,088,000 after purchasing an additional 78,824 shares during the period. Finally, Secure Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cerus in the second quarter worth about $27,000. 78.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Cerus from $6.00 to $3.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Cerus Stock Performance

NASDAQ CERS traded down $0.14 on Tuesday, hitting $1.77. The stock had a trading volume of 1,045,076 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,327,138. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $1.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $1.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.92. Cerus has a 52-week low of $1.38 and a 52-week high of $2.59.

About Cerus

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.