Bank of America Corp DE Increases Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 47.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,900,627 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,262,072 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned 0.65% of Geron worth $13,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boxer Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter valued at $21,240,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 82.6% during 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. Tri Locum Partners LP acquired a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at about $8,754,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $5,143,000. Finally, Natixis purchased a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $4,289,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GERN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $5.06.

Geron Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of GERN traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $1.49. The stock had a trading volume of 11,372,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,775,058. The company has a market cap of $949.01 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.66 and a beta of 0.76. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $1.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.49. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.17 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current 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.