Millennium Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 70.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,034,632 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,914,427 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC owned approximately 1.16% of Geron worth $24,903,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 42,401 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 4,829 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Geron by 45.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 7,592 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Lazari Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 76,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 33.1% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 36,041 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 8,967 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GERN shares. HC Wainwright restated 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 reduced their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Geron presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5.06.

Geron Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.03 during trading on Friday, hitting $1.45. 11,880,486 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,776,645. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.17 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $1.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $923.53 million, a P/E ratio of -4.53 and a beta of 0.76.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The business's revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.07) earnings per share. Equities analysts predict 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.