Swiss National Bank Grows Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 15.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,007,800 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 136,400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Geron were worth $3,568,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of GERN. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 33.1% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 36,041 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 8,967 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in Geron during the 4th quarter valued at $108,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter valued at $247,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in shares of Geron by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 148,522 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $526,000 after acquiring an additional 19,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 146.8% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 172,823 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $612,000 after purchasing an additional 102,790 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GERN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a 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 given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $1.70 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $2.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.43. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.46 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of -5.31 and a beta of 0.53.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

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.