Algert Global LLC Purchases 2,732,248 Shares of Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Algert Global LLC has significantly increased its stake in Geron Corporation by acquiring an additional 2,732,248 shares during the first quarter, raising its total ownership to over 3.26 million shares, valued at approximately $5.18 million.
• Several other institutional investors have also boosted their positions in Geron, resulting in hedge funds and institutional investors owning 73.71% of the company's stock.
• Geron Corporation reported a quarterly revenue of $49.04 million, beating analysts' expectations and marking a substantial year-over-year increase of 5455.6%, although it continues to post negative earnings per share.

Algert Global LLC raised its stake in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 516.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,260,934 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,732,248 shares during the quarter. Algert Global LLC owned approximately 0.51% of Geron worth $5,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Geron by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,146,851 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $54,293,000 after buying an additional 608,029 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $95,769,000 after buying an additional 4,516,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Geron by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $47,826,000 after buying an additional 847,710 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Geron by 64.6% in the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $41,019,000 after buying an additional 4,549,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vestal Point Capital LP increased its stake in shares of Geron by 947.6% in the fourth quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $38,940,000 after buying an additional 9,950,000 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Geron Trading Up 2.1%

GERN traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.46. 5,882,112 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,056,995. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87. Geron Corporation has a one year low of $1.09 and a one year high of $4.8250. The stock has a market capitalization of $931.51 million, a P/E ratio of -11.23 and a beta of 0.73. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $1.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1.57.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.01. Geron had a negative return on equity of 31.37% and a negative net margin of 53.52%.The business had revenue of $49.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $47.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.10) EPS. Geron's revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Geron Corporation 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.