Vestal Point Capital LP Has $38.94 Million Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Vestal Point Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 947.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 9,950,000 shares during the quarter. Geron comprises approximately 2.3% of Vestal Point Capital LP's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. Vestal Point Capital LP owned about 1.82% of Geron worth $38,940,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Geron by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $95,769,000 after purchasing an additional 4,516,615 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Geron by 6.7% in the 4th 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Geron by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,141,514 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $46,531,000 after acquiring an additional 73,515 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its position in shares of Geron by 82.6% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $26,360,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369,196 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GERN. HC Wainwright reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank cut Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, B. Riley cut Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5.06.

Geron Price Performance

GERN stock traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.45. 11,880,486 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,757,527. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.54. The company has a market cap of $923.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.53 and a beta of 0.76. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.17 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.07) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Geron Co. 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.