Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Down 8.0% in November

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 70,130,000 shares, a decline of 8.0% from the October 31st total of 76,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,570,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Darwin Global Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $106,185,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,315,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Geron by 999.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $539,000. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Geron by 124.6% in the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,389,000 after acquiring an additional 9,342,000 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of Geron stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $4.04. 4,252,896 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,321,151. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $4.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.33. Geron has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.59 and a beta of 0.52.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS 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 business had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.08) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Geron 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.