Geron Corporation $GERN Shares Acquired by Aberdeen Group plc

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group plc significantly increased its stake in Geron Corporation by 89.2%, owning approximately 6.99 million shares worth nearly $9.85 million as of the latest reporting period.
• Despite recent interest from institutional investors, Geron faces mixed analyst ratings, with three analysts rating the stock as a "Buy" and others issuing "Sell" ratings based on its $1.00 price target.
• Geron reported a revenue of $49.04 million last quarter, a substantial increase year-over-year, beating analyst expectations and reflecting a 5455.6% growth compared to the same period last year.

Aberdeen Group plc lifted its position in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 89.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,985,932 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,293,179 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc owned about 1.10% of Geron worth $9,850,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. 111 Capital acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth about $63,000. Summit Financial Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth about $38,000. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at about $116,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in Geron by 89.1% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 220,935 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $351,000 after acquiring an additional 104,075 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GERN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Geron in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $3.79.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $1.28 on Thursday. Geron Corporation has a twelve month low of $1.09 and a twelve month high of $4.50. The stock's 50 day moving average is $1.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $816.67 million, a PE ratio of -9.85 and a beta of 0.57. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $49.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.10) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current 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.

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