Wellington Management Group LLP Has $47.83 Million Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 847,710 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned approximately 2.23% of Geron worth $47,826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Geron by 2.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,450,382 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,205,000 after acquiring an additional 111,361 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Geron by 519.0% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 205,332 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $932,000 after purchasing an additional 172,160 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,020,743 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,634,000 after purchasing an additional 118,688 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its position in Geron by 256.6% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 47,455 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $215,000 after buying an additional 34,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 30.7% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 47,477 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $216,000 after buying an additional 11,149 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GERN shares. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.75.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock opened at $1.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $878.93 million, a PE ratio of -4.31 and a beta of 0.54. 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 50-day moving average price of $2.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.28. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.33 and a 1-year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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, equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.