Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Stake Boosted by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 846,768 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 119,550 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.14% of Geron worth $3,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farallon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 1st quarter valued at about $24,734,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $8,250,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Geron by 999.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,815,000 after buying an additional 1,877,184 shares in the last quarter. Altitude Crest Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 1st quarter valued at $5,054,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on GERN shares. Barclays initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Leerink Partners began coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.06.

Geron Trading Up 4.1 %

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $4.55 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $4.57 and its 200-day moving average is $3.98. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.00 and a beta of 0.50.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Geron

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

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.