Marshall Wace LLP Raises Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 73.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,202,995 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 930,412 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP owned about 0.36% of Geron worth $7,799,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Geron by 30.7% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 47,477 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $216,000 after acquiring an additional 11,149 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake 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 last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Geron by 10,151.4% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,029,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $4,674,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019,510 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Geron by 461.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 79,923 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $331,000 after acquiring an additional 65,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exome Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Geron in the third quarter valued at $4,109,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Geron stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, reaching $1.40. 6,123,803 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,485,334. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock's fifty day moving average is $1.61 and its 200 day moving average is $2.89. The firm has a market cap of $891.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.38 and a beta of 0.66. Geron Co. has a 1 year low of $1.17 and a 1 year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5.75.

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.