Geron Corporation $GERN Position Cut by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Rafferty Asset Management LLC has reduced its stake in Geron Corporation by 26.8%, owning 881,607 shares after selling 321,976 shares in the first quarter.
• Geron Corporation's latest earnings report showed a revenue increase of 5455.6% year-over-year, reporting $49.04 million compared to analysts' expectations of $47.30 million.
• Wall Street analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" for Geron, with a price target averaging $4.19 despite Goldman Sachs labeling it a "sell" with a target of $1.00.

Rafferty Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 26.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 881,607 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 321,976 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.14% of Geron worth $1,402,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vestal Point Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 947.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 9,950,000 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP bought a new position in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,802,000. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 64.6% during the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $41,019,000 after purchasing an additional 4,549,031 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 20.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 4,516,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 70.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,034,632 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $24,903,000 after buying an additional 2,914,427 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $4.19.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock traded up $0.02 on Friday, reaching $1.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,100,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,860,624. Geron Corporation has a 52 week low of $1.09 and a 52 week high of $4.83. The company has a market capitalization of $893.23 million, a P/E ratio of -10.77 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $1.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 7.87 and a quick ratio of 6.79.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.10) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 EPS 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.