Geron Corporation $GERN Shares Bought by Vestal Point Capital LP

Key Points

• Vestal Point Capital LP significantly increased its holdings in Geron Corporation by 100% during the 1st quarter, acquiring an additional 11 million shares, making Geron its 12th largest investment.
• Despite recent positive earnings results, Geron's stock experienced a 2.1% decline, with a current market price of $1.40 and an average target price of $4.19 from analysts.
• The company focuses on developing therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies and has its lead product, imetelstat, in Phase 3 clinical trials.

Vestal Point Capital LP raised its stake in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 100.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 22,005,340 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 11,005,340 shares during the period. Geron accounts for approximately 2.5% of Vestal Point Capital LP's holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Vestal Point Capital LP owned 3.45% of Geron worth $34,988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GERN. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter worth about $247,000. Stifel Financial Corp grew 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 during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 246,282 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $872,000 after buying an additional 58,034 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp ET AL bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,057,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price objective for the company. One investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $4.19.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.40. 5,100,609 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,860,624. 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 fifty day moving average price of $1.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.47. The firm has a market cap of $893.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.77 and a beta of 0.63. Geron Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $1.09 and a fifty-two week high of $4.83.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 during 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%. Geron's revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.10) EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.