State Street Corp Raises Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 28.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,413,204 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in Geron were worth $131,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Values First Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth about $115,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,076,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Geron by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,016,622 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,550,000 after acquiring an additional 415,883 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 104,924 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 7,115 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 4.2% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 262,324 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,112,000 after purchasing an additional 10,608 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of Geron stock opened at $3.86 on Friday. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.06 and a beta of 0.51. 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $4.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.35.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company’s revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Leerink Partners started coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Friday. Barclays upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.15.

Geron 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.