Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Down 16.3% in February

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 58,410,000 shares, a decrease of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 69,770,000 shares. Currently, 10.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 14,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.1 days.

Geron Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Geron stock traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $1.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 169,297 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,824,434. Geron has a 1-year low of $1.46 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.36 and a beta of 0.53. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.51.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The company had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GERN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank dropped their price target 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.75.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the third quarter worth about $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 947.6% during the 4th quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $38,940,000 after acquiring an additional 9,950,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP bought a new position in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,802,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.