Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Buys New Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 39,199 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $178,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Geron by 3.1% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 115,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 3,465 shares in the last quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Geron by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 30,674 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $139,000 after buying an additional 3,668 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 23.1% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 21,802 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 4,094 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 32.6% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 22,630 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $103,000 after acquiring an additional 5,559 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GERN. Scotiabank began coverage on Geron in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. Leerink Partners started coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.05.

Geron Stock Up 3.3 %

GERN stock opened at $3.78 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.81 and a beta of 0.52. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.31.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.08) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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.