Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company decreased its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 35.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 448,886 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 246,649 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.07% of Geron worth $1,589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GERN. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in Geron by 82.6% during the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $26,360,000 after purchasing an additional 3,369,196 shares in the last quarter. Tri Locum Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth $8,754,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth $5,143,000. Natixis acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth $4,289,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Geron by 3.4% in the fourth 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $1.19 on Monday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $1.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.72. 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 cap of $754.75 million, a P/E ratio of -3.70 and a beta of 0.76. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.17 and a twelve month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.07) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GERN shares. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5.06.

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.

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