Nuveen LLC Takes Position in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Nuveen LLC acquired 2,850,769 shares of Geron Corporation, valued at approximately $4.5 million, representing about 0.45% of the biopharmaceutical company's stock.
• Geron has received mixed ratings from analysts, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $4.19, despite some analysts issuing sell ratings.
• The company reported a significant revenue increase of 5455.6% year-over-year, with quarterly revenue reaching $49.04 million and an earnings per share of ($0.02), beating expectations.

Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 2,850,769 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock, valued at approximately $4,533,000. Nuveen LLC owned approximately 0.45% of Geron at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 74.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,618,607 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541,005 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 325.0% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,794,565 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $6,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,901,655 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 143.0% during the first quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 41,448 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 24,389 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 1.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,146,851 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $54,293,000 after acquiring an additional 608,029 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kazazian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the first quarter worth $76,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $4.19.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock traded down $0.03 on Friday, reaching $1.40. 3,413,031 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,129,642. The stock has a market cap of $893.23 million, a PE ratio of -10.77 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 7.87, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Geron Corporation has a twelve month low of $1.09 and a twelve month high of $4.83. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.51.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The business's revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.10) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

About Geron

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.