Cerus Corp. (NASDAQ:CERS) traded with an addition of $0.02 to $1.55 on Thursday, an upside of 1.63 percent. An average of 1,001,461 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a gain of $0.0500 in the past week, and it reached a new high 9 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 1,146,060 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 1,108,572.
CERS stock has decreased by -19.01% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $1.4500 on 09/25/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 01/05/23, shares of the company touched a low of $1.45 and a high of $4.25 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 3 times so far this year and lost -57.40% or -$2.0900 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -63.41% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
CERS stock investors should be aware that Cerus Corp. (CERS) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 199 days ago on Aug 22. In this transaction, the insider spent $169,344. Chief Operating Officer, Jayaraman Vivek K, disposed of 25,356 shares at a price of $2.80 on Mar 13. The insider now owns more than $70,997 worth of shares. Prior to that, Chief Medical Officer Benjamin Richard J went on to Sale 25,353 shares at $2.79 each on Mar 13. An amount of $70,781 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Cerus Corp. (CERS) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of N/A for the broader industry. The stock’s beta is 1.14. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 1.83, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 5.53.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Cerus Corp. for the three months ended June 30 was 1.47, and the current ratio was 2.01, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 1.36 and a total debt to equity ratio of 1.73 for the quarter ending June 30. Cerus Corp.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 30 is -34.43%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at -46.60%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $113.36 million compared to revenue of $188.31 million.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Cerus Corp.’s return on assets was -24.56%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 30, Cerus Corp. had $54.84 million in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of -$13.28 million in the quarter, while revenues of -$15.62 million were grew 36.82%. The analyst consensus anticipated Cerus Corp.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at -$0.06 per share, but it turned out to be -$0.06, a 0.00% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to -$11.0 million. Shareholders own equity worth $180.8 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Cerus Corp. (CERS) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 27 September was 39.42%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 33.27%.
As of today, CERS’s price is $1.5300 +3.31% or $0.0500 from its 5-day moving average. CERS is currently trading -18.75% lower than its 20-day SMA and -31.58% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -46.58% below the SMA50 and -60.41% below the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 27.45% and 23.05%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 0.1002. With the 14-day stochastic at 32.35% and the average true range at 0.1055, the RSI (14) stands at 36.95%. The stock has reached 0.0022 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -0.0488.
Analyst Ratings
BTIG Research downgraded Cerus Corp. (NASDAQ: CERS) to a a Neutral rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as a Buy.
What is CERS’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $3.00 and $9.00, with a median target of $5.50. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Cerus Corp. (CERS) stock is $5.75.
