Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Has $432,000 Stock Holdings in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cerus Co. (NASDAQ:CERS) by 43.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 280,616 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 85,392 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cerus were worth $432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CERS. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Cerus in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Cerus by 51.3% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 24,809 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 8,411 shares during the last quarter. PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Cerus in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Cerus in the third quarter valued at approximately $71,000. Finally, Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in Cerus during the 4th quarter worth $169,000. 78.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cerus Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CERS opened at $1.53 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $1.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1.81. Cerus Co. has a fifty-two week low of $1.38 and a fifty-two week high of $2.59. The company has a market capitalization of $284.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.91 and a beta of 1.29. 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 (NASDAQ:CERS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($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 $50.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.81 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cerus Co. will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cerus news, Director Eric Bjerkholt sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.78, for a total value of $35,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 162,133 shares in the company, valued at $288,596.74. This represents a 10.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target on shares of Cerus in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

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.