The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 246,649 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company trimmed its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 35.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. 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 approximately 0.07% of Geron worth $1,589,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rovin Capital UT ADV grew its holdings in Geron by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Geron by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 42,401 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $150,000 after purchasing an additional 4,829 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Geron by 45.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 7,592 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Geron during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Lazari Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Geron by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 76,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $271,000 after buying an additional 8,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GERN. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5.06.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $1.24. The company had a trading volume of 2,128,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,856,628. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $1.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.66. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.17 and a one year high of $5.34. The firm has a market cap of $786.59 million, a PE ratio of -3.86 and a beta of 0.76.

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, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.