Wellington Management Group LLP Purchases 847,710 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 847,710 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Geron were worth $47,826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Geron Trading Down 6.1 %

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $1.38 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $2.15 and its 200 day moving average is $3.28. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.33 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The stock has a market capitalization 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.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.29 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on GERN shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.75.

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.