Woodline Partners LP Purchases 4,549,031 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Woodline Partners LP increased its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 64.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 4,549,031 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP owned 1.92% of Geron worth $41,019,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Velan Capital Investment Management LP purchased a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $173,000. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its stake in Geron by 947.6% in the 4th quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $38,940,000 after purchasing an additional 9,950,000 shares during the period. Shay Capital LLC purchased a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $125,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,271,000. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. increased its stake in Geron by 32.0% in the 4th quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 330,911 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 80,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Stock Down 2.0%

GERN traded down $0.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $1.45. The stock had a trading volume of 11,880,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,776,645. The stock's 50 day moving average is $1.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $923.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.53 and a beta of 0.76. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.17 and a one year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.07) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $4.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $5.06.

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.