Arizona State Retirement System Acquires 3,465 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 115,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,465 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Geron were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in Geron by 1,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC lifted its position in Geron by 870.0% in the 1st quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. American Trust bought a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Geron by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.06.

Geron Stock Down 3.1 %

Geron stock opened at $4.37 on Tuesday. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.64 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.49 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.96.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.09) EPS. On average, analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Geron

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.