Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 86.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 105,800 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 676,572 shares during the quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC's holdings in Geron were worth $375,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Geron by 114.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 267,629 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $947,000 after purchasing an additional 116,074 shares in the last quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter valued at $93,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 26.9% in the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Geron by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 403,703 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,429,000 after buying an additional 61,819 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Price Performance

GERN stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,926,391 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,566,522. The stock has a market cap of $757.93 million, a PE ratio of -3.72 and a beta of 0.76. The company's 50 day moving average is $1.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.69. Geron Co. has a fifty-two week low of $1.17 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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

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.