Stonepine Capital Management LLC Takes $795,000 Position in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Stonepine Capital Management LLC has acquired a new position in Geron Corporation, purchasing 500,000 shares valued at approximately $795,000, representing about 0.8% of their investment portfolio.
• Geron Corporation recently posted a quarterly revenue of $49.04 million, exceeding analysts' expectations and reflecting a year-over-year increase of 5455.6%.
• Institutional investors own 73.71% of Geron’s stock, with notable stakes increased by hedge funds such as Wells Fargo and Barclays PLC.

Stonepine Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 500,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock, valued at approximately $795,000. Geron makes up 0.8% of Stonepine Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Stonepine Capital Management LLC owned about 0.08% of Geron at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Candriam S.C.A. acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,015,000. Frisch Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Forefront Analytics LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 231.0% during the 1st quarter. Forefront Analytics LLC now owns 62,973 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $100,000 after purchasing an additional 43,950 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the 1st quarter worth approximately $130,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 516.8% during the 1st quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 3,260,934 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,185,000 after purchasing an additional 2,732,248 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GERN. Scotiabank lowered shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated 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 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $4.19.

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.05 on Wednesday, hitting $1.41. The company had a trading volume of 4,469,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,785,625. The stock has a market capitalization of $899.61 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.85 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 7.87, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.54. Geron Corporation has a 52 week low of $1.09 and a 52 week high of $4.83.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The firm's revenue was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.10) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate 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.