Holocene Advisors LP Purchases Shares of 18,171,350 Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 18,171,350 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,498,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its holdings in Geron by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 7,034 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Geron by 999.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,877,184 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its position in shares of Geron by 23.8% during the first quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 305,347 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 58,787 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Csenge Advisory Group acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth $66,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. HC Wainwright started coverage on Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $8.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.05.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $4.12 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of -12.88 and a beta of 0.52. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $4.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The business had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast 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.