Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Geron (NASDAQ:GERN)

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 4,116 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 139% compared to the typical volume of 1,724 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GERN. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.05.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $4.12. 3,512,728 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,347,535. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.33. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.64 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.88 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.08) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its position in Geron by 12.3% during 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 grew its stake in Geron by 999.7% during the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its stake in Geron by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 305,347 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,008,000 after acquiring an additional 58,787 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Csenge Advisory Group acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth approximately $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.