Woodline Partners LP Reduces Stake in Geron Corporation $GERN

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP has reduced its stake in Geron Corporation by 33.3%, owning approximately 1.21% of the biopharmaceutical company with 7,728,745 shares after selling 3,858,599 shares.
• Despite the stake reduction by Woodline Partners, other investors like Ameriprise Financial and Stifel Financial have increased their holdings in Geron, indicating ongoing institutional interest.
• Geron recently reported a significant year-over-year revenue increase of 5455.6%, with earnings beating consensus estimates, although the company remains in negative territory for earnings per share.

Woodline Partners LP lowered its stake in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 33.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,728,745 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 3,858,599 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP owned approximately 1.21% of Geron worth $12,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,064,458 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $10,845,000 after purchasing an additional 247,018 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Geron by 29.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 106.0% in the first quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 3,215,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,305 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. lifted its stake in Geron by 15.1% in the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 2,130,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $3,387,000 after purchasing an additional 280,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 111 Capital bought a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock opened at $1.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87. Geron Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $1.09 and a fifty-two week high of $4.83. The company has a market capitalization of $842.18 million, a PE ratio of -10.15 and a beta of 0.63.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The firm had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $3.79.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GERN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.