Geron Corporation $GERN Shares Sold by Woodline Partners LP

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 lessened its position in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 33.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,728,745 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 3,858,599 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP owned approximately 1.21% of Geron worth $12,289,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Geron by 29.9% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 61,658 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 14,181 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,064,458 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $10,845,000 after purchasing an additional 247,018 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Geron by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,900,627 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $13,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,072 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Geron by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 892,910 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $3,161,000 after purchasing an additional 174,156 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $89,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of GERN traded up $0.06 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.31. 1,726,951 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,923,777. The company has a quick ratio of 6.79, a current ratio of 7.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market cap of $832.62 million, a PE ratio of -10.04 and a beta of 0.63. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.43. Geron Corporation has a twelve month low of $1.09 and a twelve month high of $4.83.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $1.00 target price on the stock. Three equities research 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $3.79.

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.