MetLife Investment Management LLC Decreases Stake in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS)

MetLife Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) by 49.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 52,150 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 50,585 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Cerus were worth $80,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cerus by 14.2% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings in Cerus by 13.6% in the fourth 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 lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 387,603 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cerus by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,454,525 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,862,000 after acquiring an additional 39,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cerus by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 2,169,487 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,341,000 after acquiring an additional 26,748 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cerus

In other Cerus news, CEO William Mariner Greenman sold 23,023 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.55, for a total value of $35,685.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,230,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,006,500. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Richard J. Benjamin sold 51,254 shares of Cerus stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.58, for a total transaction of $80,981.32. Following the sale, the insider now owns 400,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $633,050.70. This trade represents a 11.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 441,150 shares of company stock worth $665,210. 3.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Cerus Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CERS opened at $1.29 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $1.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $1.61. Cerus Co. has a 52 week low of $1.12 and a 52 week high of $2.54. The stock has a market cap of $246.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.73 and a beta of 1.58.

Cerus (NASDAQ:CERS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.01. Cerus had a negative net margin of 11.60% and a negative return on equity of 40.55%. The company had revenue of $43.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.44 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cerus Co. will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.