Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. Takes Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,597 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Geron by 3.1% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 115,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $489,000 after acquiring an additional 3,465 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. increased its position in shares of Geron by 18.5% during the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 36,473 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in Geron by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $212,000 after buying an additional 7,034 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GERN. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.06.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $4.44 on Thursday. Geron Co. has a 52 week low of $1.64 and a 52 week high of $5.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.16. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.69 and a beta of 0.50.

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

Insider Transactions at Geron

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

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.