Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 608,029 Shares of Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Geron Corporation by 1.8%, now owning approximately 5.36% of the company, valued at $54.29 million.
• Other hedge funds, including Janus Henderson Group PLC and Millennium Management LLC, have also significantly raised their positions in Geron during the fourth quarter.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Geron, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $4.19, despite recent downgrades from firms like Scotiabank.

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 1.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,146,851 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 608,029 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 5.36% of Geron worth $54,293,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Geron by 8.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at $247,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Geron by 29.9% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 61,658 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 14,181 shares in the last quarter. 111 Capital purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Geron by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,581,604 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $19,759,000 after purchasing an additional 447,201 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Geron Trading Down 2.1%

NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $1.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,413,031 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,807,157. The firm has a market capitalization of $893.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.77 and a beta of 0.63. Geron Corporation has a 1 year low of $1.09 and a 1 year 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.50.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $49.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The company's revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.10) EPS. Research analysts expect that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geron Company 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.