Teacher Retirement System of Texas Purchases 39,933 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 35.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 151,887 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 39,933 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Geron were worth $538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. RTW Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at about $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Geron in the third quarter worth approximately $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Geron by 140.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $131,486,000 after buying an additional 6,413,204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Triangle Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $15,214,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN opened at $1.59 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $2.27 and its 200 day moving average is $3.35. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.46 and a 12-month high of $5.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.53. 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 (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GERN. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated 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 set a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

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.