Orbimed Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Orbimed Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 442.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,168,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,768,000 shares during the quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC owned about 0.36% of Geron worth $7,675,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $118,727,000 after buying an additional 1,088,912 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Geron by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $95,769,000 after acquiring an additional 4,516,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Geron by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $47,826,000 after acquiring an additional 847,710 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Geron by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,141,514 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $46,531,000 after purchasing an additional 73,515 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 82.6% during the fourth quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $26,360,000 after purchasing an additional 3,369,196 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.28 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $815.26 million, a PE ratio of -4.00 and a beta of 0.76. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $1.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.70. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.17 and a 12-month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted 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 return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.07) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Geron Company 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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