RA Capital Management L.P. Increases Stock Holdings in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• RA Capital Management L.P. significantly increased its stake in Geron Corporation by 101.2%, owning a total of 60.4 million shares following the purchase of over 30.3 million shares during the quarter.
• The stock has been rated with an average of "Moderate Buy" by analysts, with a consensus target price of $4.19, despite Goldman Sachs giving it a "sell" rating with a price objective of $1.00.
• Geron Corporation reported a remarkable 5455.6% year-over-year revenue increase for the quarter, with $49.04 million in revenue, surpassing analyst expectations.

RA Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 101.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,379,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 30,369,830 shares during the period. Geron makes up 1.6% of RA Capital Management L.P.'s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. RA Capital Management L.P. owned approximately 9.48% of Geron worth $96,003,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.40. 5,100,609 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,860,624. The company has a market cap of $893.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.77 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87. Geron Corporation has a one year low of $1.09 and a one year high of $4.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1.34 and a 200 day moving average of $1.47.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $49.04 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 31.37% and a negative net margin of 53.52%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.10) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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.