J. Goldman & Co LP Raises Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

J. Goldman & Co LP lifted its holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 847.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,669,684 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,493,445 shares during the period. J. Goldman & Co LP owned 0.28% of Geron worth $5,911,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 114.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its position in shares of Geron by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 267,629 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $947,000 after buying an additional 116,074 shares in the last quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth about $93,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Geron by 18.1% in 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. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Trading Down 0.8%

GERN stock traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.19. 5,926,391 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,587,660. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.17 and a 52-week high of $5.34. 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 50 day moving average of $1.46 and a 200-day moving average of $2.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $757.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.72 and a beta of 0.76.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.07) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GERN. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Geron presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $5.06.

About Geron

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.