Bank of America Corp DE Has $13.81 Million Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 47.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,900,627 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,262,072 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.65% of Geron worth $13,808,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Nvest Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $693,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Geron by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 73,482 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 114.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Geron during the 4th quarter valued at $5,143,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,064,458 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $10,845,000 after acquiring an additional 247,018 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GERN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered 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 sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5.06.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.45. 11,880,486 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,776,645. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $1.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $923.53 million, a PE ratio of -4.53 and a beta of 0.76. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.17 and a 12 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.07) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Geron Company 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.