Janus Henderson Group PLC Boosts Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 20.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 4,516,615 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 4.48% of Geron worth $95,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Geron by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $47,826,000 after buying an additional 847,710 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,141,514 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $46,531,000 after buying an additional 73,515 shares during the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 82.6% in the fourth quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $26,360,000 after buying an additional 3,369,196 shares during the period. Finally, Braidwell LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,802,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Stock Up 5.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $1.27. 13,831,903 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,593,173. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.17 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The company has a market cap of $808.89 million, a PE ratio of -3.97 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.66.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.88 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.07) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS 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.