Nvest Financial LLC Buys New Shares in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Nvest Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 195,741 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $693,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RTW Investments LP bought a new stake in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $200,268,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Geron by 28.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $131,486,000 after acquiring an additional 6,413,204 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after purchasing an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at $82,498,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,067,999 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $59,339,000 after purchasing an additional 231,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.25.

Geron Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $3.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.09. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $28.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.08) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict 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.