Fmr LLC Sells 376,720 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Fmr LLC trimmed its holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,979,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 376,720 shares during the quarter. Fmr LLC owned 2.48% of Geron worth $68,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 124.6% in the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $71,389,000 after buying an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position 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 buying an additional 111,361 shares in the last quarter. First Turn Management LLC bought a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $14,187,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Geron by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,016,622 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,550,000 after acquiring an additional 415,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GERN has been the topic of several recent research reports. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $8.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Barclays upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.05.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $3.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.28 and a beta of 0.51. 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 Co. has a 1-year low of $1.64 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company has a 50 day moving average of $4.11 and a 200-day moving average of $4.33.

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, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.08) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.