Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Cerus Corporation (CERS)?

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to watch stocks. Two of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outclass the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as important, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of stimuli for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action regarding Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS).

What does the smart money think about Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 67% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors had the biggest position in Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS), worth close to $28.9 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $20 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism include Jeremy Green’s Redmile Group, Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital and James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names have jumped into Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) headfirst. Redmile Group, managed by Jeremy Green, created the largest position in Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS). Redmile Group had 6.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital also made a $2.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

How are insiders trading Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the primary stock in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS). These stocks are Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS), Repros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RPRX), Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGNX), XOMA Corp (NASDAQ:XOMA), and Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNSS). This group of stocks are in the biotechnology industry and their market caps match CERS’s market cap.