Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Update

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 71,510,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the August 31st total of 67,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 9,480,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on GERN shares. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Barclays began coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.06.

Insider Transactions at Geron

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron during the second quarter worth $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its position in Geron by 124.6% during the second 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,842,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,108,000 after acquiring an additional 208,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the first quarter valued at $8,250,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of GERN stock traded down $0.13 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $4.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,575,236 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,778,605. Geron has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $4.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $4.16. The company has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.60 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. Analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.34 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.