US Bancorp DE Purchases 7,429 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 68.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,429 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Geron were worth $83,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Geron by 66.4% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 115,937 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $526,000 after purchasing an additional 46,254 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc bought a new stake in Geron during the third quarter worth approximately $6,752,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Geron by 23.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 21,802 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 4,094 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 30,674 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 34.7% in the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 341,884 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,552,000 after buying an additional 88,027 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on GERN. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. HC Wainwright started coverage on Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.05.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $3.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.44 and a beta of 0.52. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $4.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.31. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.64 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The firm had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

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.