Aquatic Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 418,541 Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 418,541 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC owned about 0.07% of Geron at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $47,826,000 after acquiring an additional 847,710 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Geron by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,141,514 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $46,531,000 after acquiring an additional 73,515 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its stake in Geron by 82.6% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $26,360,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369,196 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Geron by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $16,014,000 after purchasing an additional 73,482 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of several research reports. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $5.38.

Geron Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of Geron stock traded down $0.05 on Friday, hitting $1.38. The stock had a trading volume of 12,051,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,361,352. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1.53 and a 200 day moving average of $2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $878.94 million, a P/E ratio of -4.31 and a beta of 0.66. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.17 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Geron Profile

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis.