Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 58,410,000 shares, a drop of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 69,770,000 shares. Approximately 10.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 22,209 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612 shares during the period. Rovin Capital UT ADV raised its stake in shares of Geron by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 42,401 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $150,000 after purchasing an additional 4,829 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 7,592 shares during the period. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Stock Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $1.70. 6,277,789 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,889,081. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.52. Geron has a one year low of $1.46 and a one year high of $5.34. The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of -5.31 and a beta of 0.53.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Equities analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current 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.