Russell Investments Group Ltd. Decreases Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,267,808 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 221,453 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Geron were worth $8,028,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $83,000. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 45.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 7,592 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of GERN stock opened at $1.38 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $878.93 million, a P/E ratio of -4.31 and a beta of 0.66. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $1.19 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.13.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The firm had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. On average, analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GERN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.