Velan Capital Investment Management LP Raises Stock Holdings in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Velan Capital Investment Management LP significantly increased its stake in Geron Corporation by acquiring an additional 606,000 shares, raising its total ownership to 655,000 shares, which constitutes about 1.1% of its portfolio.
• The stock has recently experienced contrasting analyst ratings, with firms like Goldman Sachs initiating coverage with a "sell" rating and a $1.00 target price, while the average rating across analysts is "Moderate Buy" with a target of $4.19.
• Geron Corporation reported impressive quarterly earnings, with revenue soaring 5455.6% year-over-year, totaling $49.04 million, and outperforming analysts' estimates.

Velan Capital Investment Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 1,236.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 655,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 606,000 shares during the quarter. Geron makes up 1.1% of Velan Capital Investment Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Velan Capital Investment Management LP owned approximately 0.10% of Geron worth $1,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $247,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 347,919 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 24,260 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Geron by 29.9% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 378.2% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 285,047 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 225,441 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Trading Down 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $1.41. The company had a trading volume of 3,182,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,286,205. The stock has a market cap of $896.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.81 and a beta of 0.63. Geron Corporation has a one year low of $1.09 and a one year high of $4.83. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 7.87 and a quick ratio of 6.79.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (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 analyst estimates 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 revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.10) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GERN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Geron in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $4.19.

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.