Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Sells 7,233,594 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 74.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,462,941 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 7,233,594 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.41% of Geron worth $8,719,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Geron by 114.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 694,931 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Geron by 45.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 7,592 shares during the period. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter worth $693,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Geron by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 128,176 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 12,239 shares during the period. Finally, Lazari Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 76,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $271,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ GERN traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $1.55. 24,140,885 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,834,161. The stock has a market cap of $984.04 million, a P/E ratio of -4.83 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.45. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.17 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.07) earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the subject of a number of research reports. HC Wainwright restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a 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 report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank cut shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $5.06.

About Geron

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.