Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Sold by XTX Topco Ltd

XTX Topco Ltd lowered its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 69.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,915 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 24,506 shares during the quarter. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Geron were worth $50,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Readystate Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter worth $62,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Geron by 32.7% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in Geron in the third quarter valued at $67,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.15.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN opened at $3.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.91 and a beta of 0.51.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, 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.