Aberdeen Group plc Acquires 1,845,468 Shares of Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group plc significantly increased its stake in Geron Corporation by 99.9% in the first quarter, acquiring an additional 1,845,468 shares to hold 3,692,753 shares valued at approximately $5.87 million.
• Other large institutional investors like Vanguard and Janus Henderson also increased their holdings, with institutional investors now owning 73.71% of Geron's stock.
• Geron reported a positive quarterly performance, beating earnings expectations with revenues of $49.04 million, which represents a 5455.6% increase compared to the same quarter last year.

Aberdeen Group plc grew its holdings in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 99.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,692,753 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,845,468 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc owned about 0.58% of Geron worth $5,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the first quarter worth $43,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. acquired a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. 111 Capital acquired a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter worth $52,000. Finally, Fifth Lane Capital LP acquired a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on GERN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 target price on the stock. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $4.19.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.04 on Tuesday, hitting $1.46. The company had a trading volume of 3,457,215 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,126,514. Geron Corporation has a 1-year low of $1.09 and a 1-year high of $4.83. The stock has a market cap of $931.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.23 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.54. 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 (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The firm had revenue of $49.04 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect 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.