Graham Capital Management L.P. Acquires New Position in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired 376,760 shares of Geron Corporation, valued at approximately $599,000, during the first quarter, representing about 0.06% of the company.
• Institutional ownership of Geron Corporation is significant, with 73.71% of the stock owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
• Wall Street analysts give Geron a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $4.19, despite a recent "sell" rating from Goldman Sachs.

Graham Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 376,760 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock, valued at approximately $599,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. owned 0.06% of Geron at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter worth about $247,000. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Geron by 29.9% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 61,658 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 14,181 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,581,604 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $19,759,000 after purchasing an additional 447,201 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 33.8% during the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 528,686 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $1,872,000 after purchasing an additional 133,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased 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 valued at $10,845,000 after buying an additional 247,018 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Stock Up 2.3%

NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $1.32. 4,555,897 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,334,143. The stock has a market capitalization of $842.18 million, a PE ratio of -10.15 and a beta of 0.63. Geron Corporation has a 12-month low of $1.09 and a 12-month high of $4.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87. The business has a 50-day moving average of $1.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.44.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $3.79.

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.