Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 2,048,762 Shares of Geron Corporation $GERN

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its stake in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 90.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 219,046 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 2,048,762 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.'s holdings in Geron were worth $348,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Geron by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,146,851 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $54,293,000 after acquiring an additional 608,029 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Geron by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $95,769,000 after buying an additional 4,516,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Geron by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $47,826,000 after purchasing an additional 847,710 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its holdings in Geron by 64.6% in the 4th quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $41,019,000 after purchasing an additional 4,549,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vestal Point Capital LP lifted its holdings in Geron by 947.6% in the 4th quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $38,940,000 after purchasing an additional 9,950,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GERN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $4.19.

Geron Price Performance

Geron stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $1.41. 3,525,854 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,228,102. The company has a quick ratio of 6.79, a current ratio of 7.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The business has a fifty day moving average of $1.34 and a 200 day moving average of $1.48. Geron Corporation has a 1-year low of $1.09 and a 1-year high of $4.83. The company has a market capitalization of $896.42 million, a PE ratio of -10.81 and a beta of 0.63.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.10) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geron Corporation 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.