Barclays PLC Buys 694,931 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Barclays PLC grew its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 114.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $5,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GERN. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Geron by 1,200.0% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV acquired a new stake in Geron during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $62,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 3,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Trading Down 2.9 %

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $3.66 on Friday. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.44 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.36.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank began 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. Barclays raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, December 13th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.15.

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.