MetLife Investment Management LLC Buys 24,260 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 347,919 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 24,260 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC owned 0.06% of Geron worth $1,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV lifted its position in Geron by 26.9% in the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 3,660 shares during the last quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Finally, Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $83,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GERN. B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.38.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN stock opened at $1.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $910.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.47 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $1.55 and a 200 day moving average of $2.85. Geron Co. has a 52 week low of $1.17 and a 52 week 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.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. As a group, 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.